Mad Men on the BBC

<3 Salvatore Romano

He looks like a weird distortion of a Baldwin.

About last night, but, you know, from a while ago.

Did Peggy look, um, stouter to anyone last night? Someone was suggesting they were padding her up to later pull a Plain Jane transformation.

Didn't notice her looking stouter, but I've thought a transformation was on the cards from the beginning - she's always had greasy skin and hair.

She's well cast, looks-wise. At first glance she's kind of plain, but there's definately something very sexy about her.

Did Peggy look, um, stouter to anyone last night?

stet otm!

Also lolling at "can I drop you off at the station?"

Loved the ending! I expected her to stare wistfully at the Symbolic Birds, not start shooting the fuckers! This was totally Betty's episode, and for the first time I have the teensiest bit of sympathy for her.

TS: Betty's homing pigeons vs Tony Soprano's bear

Anyone else fancy the pants off red headed office bitch?

Another terrific episode.

>Did Peggy look, um, stouter to anyone last night?

During last week's twist sequence my wife said "they've padded her", no doubt to allow the transformation to hottness as you say, stet. Office redhead is already *blazing* hott, although this is as much to do with Christina Hendrick's turn in Firefly and related fanboy shame.

Anyone with some historical economic smarts around here? So Don settled for $45k salary, that must have been some serious coin back in the early sixties! What would it convert to?

The Inflation Calculator Knows: $316790.51

$303K, according to this.. That's a hell of a wage if it's accurate.

I was pleased to find out that Betty's such a good shot.

x-post: that is some crazy loot! makes sense though if Pete is complaining that Don is not "ten times better than me".

The birds riff was another nice nod to the Sopranos I thought (with its early duck obsession), the bit where their dog did a mid-air om-nom-nom on the pigeon was hilarious. That final scene of Betty in her housedress, cig dangling and firing away gave me proper lols too.

Nice interview with Jon Hamm in The Observer yesterday:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/27/television

It's my favourite thing on television. I adore the care that seems to have been put into every aspect of its recreation: the costumes, the sets, the colours, the way the actors move and talk. It's so refreshing to have a period drama that's neither portrayed fetishistically nor sloppy and "the people back then were just like us!" about it.

The episode with the lipstick-brainstorming session and Betty telling Draper how she aches all day for his coming home was my favourite so far. I'm so glad to find a show with a really strong central pairing. Their relationship is such a rich seam. He so enigmatic, even before the changed-identity storyline was told, she so ... I don't know what the word is. I think January Jones is just phenomenally good at making Betty – the kind of woman who'd usually be a prissy stock character – the heart of the show. It's interesting that other people were laughing at the pigeon shoot. I thought it was an emotionally devastasting ending. I was in shocked tears!

And Christina Hendricks, yes, what a fucking woman.

How well is this doing in the US ratings? Is its future secure?

definitely a second season at least, which is filming now and should air in a few months. It won a Golden Globe for best drama series, and also a Peabody (not that anybody really cares about that, though they should), so it should be alright. Also, it's an AMC original program and is now their flagship. Can't imagine it will go anywhere soon save for a creative decision.

Also, the first season dvd set comes in an awesome lighter packaging.

Great news. Thanks.

http://media.tumblr.com/aGkz4XFcZ872u7x00HJm1D54_400.jpg

WANT.

I was shocked to discover yesterday - the Guardian is good for something after all - that creepy younger ad dude who is having the affair with Peggy was Angel's son, Conor!

Anyone else feel this week's was rather unsubtle by the standards of the show? Still packed with great moments, of course.

Did Joan pick up men that unpleasant merely as a warped way of getting back at her room mate,do youthink, or are there some hitherto unsuspected deep self-esteem issues in her character?

I'd never heard of this until I saw the other day that it had won a Golden Globe. It sounds pretty great.

It's better than that.

Better than what?

Pretty great.

I didn't like last week's quite as much, no. Joan is certainly a mix of sexual liberation and fucked-up I'm-the-queen-bee-ness issues when it comes to men.

It's interesting that it's on the BBC in the UK, because it really does not have a high profile here at all. Who knew that AMC even did original programming? (But I think Gukbe must be right -- it will continue because it is now AMC's flagship show.)

It doesn't have an enormously high profile here either. The Guardian was smart enough, when it launched, to put it on the front of its weekly TV guide with a feature and the cover line "Warning: Mad Men is addictive", which is how I got interested. But BBC One buries it very late at night on a Monday, though it airs the night before on the (digital only, tiny audience, highbrow channel) BBC Four channel.

-channel

Every time this is on, there are three or four people talking to each other in a medium shot, one of those people is a stunning blonde who is perfectly put together and the other two people are men in suits and slick groomed hair. The room they're in is underlit and the walls are a dark olive green or rich red, as if designed by David Lynch. They all seem very satisfied with themselves. I swear it is the exact same shot each time.

Still loving this, but I didn't like Campbell taking the package *at all*. There's no way he takes that. It's not that it's too "evil" for him (I think we're meant to think he'll do just about anything in the service of his ambition), it's just: what, he's gonna start taking Draper's mail? He doesn't know the package contains something incriminating sent by DD's secret, now-dead brother. He's just randomly taking mail. Seems a little more contrived than the show has been so far.

Yeah, I had the same thoughts. Not completely decided about it, though.

They really know how to do a closing shot though. Peggy turning to the Rejuvenator or whatever it's called now was perfect.

Agreed about the package.

It's interesting that it's on the BBC in the UK, because it really does not have a high profile here at all.

depends on what you mean by high profile. it was all over the u.s. print media, lots of newspaper and magazine features, beloved by a lot of tv critics, etc. i don't know what that translated into in terms of viewers, but it got a golden globe for best tv series, and jon hamm got one for best actor.

and tracer otm about those medium shots. i think lynch is a big visual influence on the series.

A+++ origin story; will not spoil it for Tuesday nighters.

^^^real talk

Loved how the compositionof their scenes together emphasised how physically imposing Don is next to Pete.

Alba, your 28.4 post was well written.

Hand, I like your post about the shot or whatever. could you please put me in touch with

[a stunning blonde who is perfectly put together]

?

I don't really agree about the 'addictive' thing. I think silly internet sites are addictive. I don't think good TV series are. They're hard work and you need to concentrate on them and so on.

There are certainly some lovely ladies in the programme, which reminds me of the time that Alba or N. said 'I know the pinefox thinks all the ladies on television are beautiful'.

Loved how the composition of their scenes together emphasised how physically imposing Don is next to Pete.

OTM. I'd hoped that Don was going to give that fucking snake Pete a proper hiding, but to no avail. There were a couple of other nice shots in this episode that played on Don's physicality in a similar way: when Pete gives him the package and the camera zooms in behind him (then into flashback). Also, when Don stalks down the corridor to confront Pete and does a little shoulder roll it was like the camera following a boxer into the ring, which I guess was the point.

Am in full agreement re: origin story. Perfect.

Predictions and/or guesses for next week (the season finale)?

Stirling dies?
Rachel's pregnant?
Betty kills herself/attempts suicide?
Campbell goes to Betty with Draper's secret?

The only actual prediction I'm making is that Peggy will feature big in the last episode. The weight gain/ostracization has to have been building up to something.

Pregnant by Campbell?

SHUSH

Oh fuck

When is new season on BBC?

I know right? you should watch, I v seldom bother with any of these shows (tho getting into them more lately) but once you get on a roll of Mad Men it's just huge swirl of diff things to think about, so good.

When is new season on BBC?

Like fucking November or something. Seriously, get in on the copyright theft action.

hah i like the sound of having diff things to think about.

The other thread has calmed down a bit and is actually quite good now.

When is new season on BBC?

There was a six month gap between the US and the UK for the first two seasons, so Feb next year as usual.

I'm not going anywhere near the other thread. I'm gonna sit it out 'till 2010.

You're a far better man than I.

Unsettling lack of an s3e2 torrent. Until now I've always found major US shows are up by 6am GMT the morning following the US broadcast without fail.

lolz I am Joan Holloway

I can't find ep 2 anywhere either. Why would that be?

me neither...enjoyed ep 1.

Still no sign. This is very odd.

There was one added to mininova half an hour ago, no idea if it's real though.

Yeah--hunting round the place reveals lots of people desperately waiting. It would be the perfect fake torrent at the moment.

I'm dling one from mininova now, I'll let you know how it is this afternoon.

Fake.

not up on http://www.free-tv-video-online.info/internet/mad_men/ usu. means there's no torrent yet

A few have popped up on Isohunt now but dunno if they're real or not.

you can always get the episodes on rapidshare

Hey, got it off rs in under four minutes! Thanks groove, would never have thought of that.

Episode 2 is all over Mininova, guys. I watched a copy with 3200+ seeds not moments ago.

Is there a 720p version out yet?

now you're just being greedy

It doesn't look the same in SD, got it now though so a happy bunny.

It hit M1ninova yesterday morning, more than 24 hours later than usual. I guess P1rate Bay being down affected things somehow.

I think the groups were just being a it lazy. It didn't hit the private trackers until yesterday either.

a *bit*

is this shown every two weeks or something?

nope. it's every sunday - there's 2 episodes so far this season

right so the newest one is this coming sunday?

yep

excellent!

Revive for Series 3!

Roger Sterling blackface!

Joan and her accordion!

why did they do that flashback at the start of last weeks episode? didnt seem to add anything to the programme at all.

does anyone know where i can view the first 2 eps of this series? i missed them.

oops, it wasnt a flashback, i meant flashforward.

Excellent episode last night - a strong Betty episode, with hardly any of the regulars, except Pete and a Joan cameo, and not a single scene set inside Sterling-Cooper. Joan usually gets all the attention, but Bets was great, loved her little "we won, we won" jig, but her la dolce vita makeover was something else.

http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/betty-don-draper-italy.jpg

That whole scene on the piazza was wonderful.

Have just finished watching S3 (on DVD) - the final episode was possibly the best yet, I already had some idea of what the final outcome would be from the S4 thread title but the way they got there was still thrilling.

Was then surprised and delighted to read that it's only weeks until S4 starts on BBC4!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/19/jon-hamm-mad-men-don-draper

what a terrible article. "good looks and fame always impress me". isnt this meant to be the observer?

liking the new series though, and how all the characters, don esp, seems much less composed than ever before. getting more interesting.

not sure the obs would be ok with a similarly 'i got a boner' approach to interviewing from a man

that mags readership is prob 85% women tho (or perceived to be, ditto the guardian's saturday magazine)

but that interview is one step away from talking about how she went home and gave herself a seeing to while drinking from his leftover coffee cup

but that interview is one step away from talking about how she went home and gave herself a seeing to while drinking from his leftover coffee cup

It isn't really, although I'm stoked for talking about whether objectification of the sexes is a level playing field once again. It's an interesting enough read once Jon Hamm starts talking but the breathless first person stuff at the start is appalling writing.

i dunno how you subs would have left it (maybe thats just how he talks and so thats how it should have been left?), but his quotes had too many exclamation marks.

that... didn't bother me

actually, the piece reads a lot better if you avoid the start.

Polly V3rnon has a schtick of being very impressed/leg-humpy around thinking women's crumpet types, which in no way makes things level for women because the man is elevated to a pedestal rather than being, say, the female object of a circle-jerk who can be discarded at any time.

Did anyone have to actually read the thing to become aware of this? Because she got her bona fides in this department, writing shitty articles about how a diet of cocktails and canapés is 'accidentally Atkins' or whatever. My school friend is a PR who deals with Obs mag types a lot and says she treats other women in a dismissive manner unless they're important, but doesn't seem to wheat-and-chaff men in quite the same way.

He seems like a nice guy.

he does. don't like reading about actors tbh though. doesn't really matter what they're like. like, elisabeth moss is a scientologist iirc.

I like reading about actors but they have to be interesting people with some kind of intellectual life; the world is a better place because Peter O'Toole still does interviews, for example.

The only time I have even approached that kind of WHOA in my own work, it was 1995 and I'd had three hours of coffee with Ewan McGregor at the height of his fanciability, just before Trainspotting came out. It's not the kind of thing you write when you're forty, unless you're trying way too hard to be the new Mariella Frostrup.

Just started watching season 1 of this properly, after having caught the debut broadcast of the first episode way back when but somehow never following up on it. It's pretty damn awesome. We're about 5 epsiodes in now. Just seen the episode where Betty shoots at the pigeons...

Halfway through s3.

Craft, good acting and staging is wonderful but kinda sits here, now watching for the asides -- the boss' Ayn Rand fixation, Joan playing the accordion as the most bizarre but effective way to show how wives or gfs are used to impress other men on the way up in the career ladder -- is what keeps me watching.