MAD MEN on AMC - Seasons 7(a) & & 7(b)

"Not great, AMC!"

OH fuuuuuuck this noise

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/DonDraperBukes.gif

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/GlenBishipGif.gif

huh. it worked for breaking bad cuz breaking bad hasn't traditionally taken two thirds of the season to really get going.

at this point i hardly remember what happened last season. don cheated a lot and was emo a lot and drank a lot, then he got fired, the end.

They were all on drugs all the time.

And it only halfly worked on BB. 5B has been all-time-great, but 5A was mostly dull.

Shorty punched Roger in the balls.

Peggy's Clio dreams were sidelined once again and so she stabbed her boyfriend.

Bryan Cranston will do the voiceovers on the Mercedes ads that air during Mad Men.

Bob Benson brushed Blue Blood's bad-spot.

I'm so over this show, I realized.

When someone who constantly shows up with coffee and smiles can command everyone's attention for an entire season, then yes, the wheels may have fallen off.

i'm PRETTY SURE i enjoyed the last season but in retrospect it all seems so uninteresting. maybe i've just become a breaking bad monogamist.

is this really that surprising?

Bobby watched Planet of the Apes. Pete fell down the stairs. His mother fell over board. Ken got shot in the face. So many great things happened, though overall it wasn't as insanly good as seasons 3-5.

Pete doesn't get to see Annie's boobs anymore.

Yeah, I really struggled to give a damn through last season.

Don contacted by Nixon's Plumbers unit.

Last season was worth it for making me not hate Betty anymore.

idg people who complain that "nothing happens" in this show. it's not a cop/crime show!

come on then seeing as we've nothing better to do. season rankings?

mine:

season 4
season 3
season 1
season 6
season 2
season 5

5,4,3,1,6,2

How can you have five as the worst?

^^^

it was just such a comedown after the dizzy heights of season 4!

I should give 6 another shot. Fell asleep in the middle two weeks in a row and never bothered trying to catch up.

But, but, but... Roger on LSD! Pete being punched in the face! Repeatedly! Zou Bisou Bisou!

I think season 5 might be the bravest and most thematically complex season they ever did. After reinventing the show completely after both seasons 3 and 4, they then went and undercut all of that with what was pretty much a return to the status quo before the show started. While really in the few seasons before that it seemed as if everything was changing, and in such exciting ways, then all of a sudden it turned out that everything would stay the same (most brilliantly played out in At the Codfish Ball, one of my favorite episodes in the whole show) But I might be giving the season too many bonus points for difficulty, perhaps it isn't quite as good as season 4.

1,4,5,2,3,6

Later seasons are more accomplished than the first, but it's my favourite cos it seemed so fresh at the time, and because it has the most traditional narrative structure (I'm quite conservative about storytelling in some ways).

3 > 5 > 2 > 6 > 4 > 1

didnt begin to watch this show til a year ago. So good. Last season was a slowburner but really great and weird and inexplicably spooky.

Part of the fun of 6 was all the online Megan conspiracies that ultimately resulted in nothing. It was the most fun of that nature I'd had since LOST.

JF so otm. I've noticed I am impartial to MM being drawn out over more years. It will hopefully prolong the fun for longer, because at this rate, after season six, I will not care about MM a whole lot after it ends I think.

Incidentally, I only watched the last three episodes of Lost last weekend. For the first time, having seen all the episodes, all seasons when they first aired, being hugely engaged in it all. But then love happened and I forgot about Lost for... Years. The final episode was a bag of cock. I enjoyed anticipating watching it way more than actually watching it.

Yes! In general, the internet-fandom has been so fun these last few years. In general, Mad Men still has a reputation as being this really slow, dour, self-important show, but it's also an endless gif-generator and morbidly funny show. Like, for all the heavyness there is this really big joy to the show and it's fanbase.

otm. it's just so weird and off kilter and dreamlike. could watch a whole season where barely anything happens.

Absolutely. And it's something I haven't completely reconciled with, for I want to love the show for the show alone. But for me, in the case of Mad Men, that internet buzz only heavily started in season 3 or 4, which makes that I'm not sick of it yet, it is at its prime. And I don't mean checking buzzfeed or whatever. Reveling in the MM thread right here is enough to add to the enjoyment.

(That was an xp, but Ryan otm)

frederik otm, one thing about mad men i didn't expect before watching it was how hilarious it is.

what's the season where the secretary runs over the guy's foot w/ the lawnmover

3

that was a good one

this is cliche but it's so funny in a really satisfying why because the characters are so richly drawn--so much of the humor comes from a very careful build up of motivations and tendencies. and it's great because the show does a great job of placing each episode in the timeline of that character's development. the whole history of the show seems to weigh on every scene.

lawnmower foot vs. Ken face-shooting is a tough call for me

dude on the other side of the translucent glass squeegeeing the blood off coupled with ashen-faced harry and roger's jokes was an all-time great MM moment.

"and just when he got it in the door"

"the doctor said he'll never golf again"

That might be the funniest episode ever.

MM supercuts on YouTube are the best.

Oh god, remember when Miss Blankenship died? Driven out covered by Harry's blanket.

Well, this is interesting. Robert Towne has joined the writing staff:
http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/screenwriter-robert-towne-joins-writing-staff-of-mad-men-exclusive-1200615261/

!

No ⚾️ but you can still sing the song(s) +🍺🍺🍺 @Mets #OpeningDay #OpeningDayAtHome #FauxpeningDay pic.twitter.com/YJDUa67nw3

— Mad Men Quotes (@MadMenQts) March 26, 2020

damn it! in the middle of rewatch and i find out it's leaving netflix tomorrow. Im on season 4

They obviously don't like to advertise those things but I really wish there was some easy way to find out when shows/movies will be leaving Netflix/Prime etc

That hasn't happened to me yet--must be infuriating, albeit less so with a rewatch.

If you have today and tomorrow and the time to do it, finish up, carne.

yeah i'm going to try and marathon through it. Have to say it has been really awesome watching it a second time, so many great details I missed when it originally aired.

https://www.vulture.com/article/whats-leaving-netflix-movies-shows.html

Prime do have a "limited time on Prime" section. But yes, this is one of the many infuriating things about that website.

...called Netflix.

I'm no help here, but the complete Mad Men might still be on sale in the iTunes store for $20.

Here's your ultimate Mad Men trivia question: who was Tilden Katz?

By the way, the infuriating thing watching this on Prime is that they cut the end credits after a few seconds and skip to the next episode, without an option of staying on the credits. Much musical brilliance wasted.

That question actually has two correct answers--easier because of that.

Rachel Menken's husband is the obvious answer I guess, no idea what the other correct answer would be though!

You just need to turn off Auto Play under 'Settings' (Gear Icon) then 'Player' from your Prime home screen on a browser xps

do you guys follow january jones on instagram?

Thanks, I'll try that.

The other answer--the one I had--is that that's the pseudonym Don uses the night they go to the after-hours place with Freddy Rumsen, the episode where they fire him: Dick Dollars, Mike Moneybags, and Tilden Katz. I didn't realize he got that from Rachel's husband until I googled the name after I posted. You've got a better memory than I do--never would have got that in a million years if I hadn't just watched the Freddy episode.

it's a cool name.

anyway, though, the actress who plays betty draper has been bludgeoning rattlesnakes in her back yard in order to protect her dogs.

reminds me of when she shot her neighbor's pigeons with an air rifle in season one

That moment, shooting the pigeons, is probably the first stunning moment in S1 (ninth episode). There's been lots of great moments up till that point, but that comes out of nowhere; with the show's timeline just moving into the '60s, it's like the close-up of Janet Leigh's eye in Psycho.

Anything I post here I very likely posted above already, so I kept it to a minimum this time. Two things that killed me (again, I'm sure) in the last couple of episodes: Duck's final exit--wonder if it was scripted or improvised--and Joan's reaction the news of Roger's marriage to Marie.

Is that where Duck tries to take a poop on a chair??

No, that's in S5 or S6. He visits Roger about a meeting he's set up, and Roger sends him on his way: at the doorway, just before he leaves, he quickly looks to his right, then looks to his left, like he's lost--he is, and also drunk. It's the perfect summation of Duck the whole way.

Visits Pete, that should say, not Roger.

Duck trying to poop was in "The Suitcase" back in S4 iirc.

Right, right--such a famous episode. I mentioned in the Mr. Robot thread that the guy who plays Duck showed up for about two minutes in one episode.

I think I’m going to rewatch

https://dirt.substack.com/p/dirt-the-mad-men-rewatch

I looked around a bit online for an original copy of Meditations in an Emergency, but was quickly jolted into reality re the price.

S5, not S7, but I'll ask the question here: any thoughts on the way Don handles Lane's forged cheque? I think it's one of the more interesting ethical dilemmas of the show's entire run. I can see arguments on both sides. Doing some Monday morning quarterbacking, you can say it was awful that Don didn't smooth that over--Lane did help save the company, including the money of his own that he chipped in, and the $8,000 or whatever it was almost surely would have been paid back before long. On the other hand, as he explained to Lane, it could have destroyed the agency if word got to the clients, and subsequently he never let anyone else know about what Lane had done.

It's not an ethical dilemma for Don...it's some kind of dilemma.

Just finished a run through of this, great fun.

In response to above. I thought Don’s approach was very jarring, and one of many moments where suddenly SCDP went all clinical business relations over the normal free-breezy and deeply personal relations that had been the standard to that point. Very weird to see Don take what seems to be an ethical stand as well.

I was thinking about Mad Men yesterday when this came on the radio. So many perfect episode-ending songs, but this might be the one that got away for S5 or S6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ByJ1C0iR4

https://people.com/movies/jon-hamm-and-anna-osceola-are-engaged/

Celebrity news, yes...but this detail...

Osceola, 34, appeared in the series' final episode, where she had a small role playing the receptionist at Esalen, a spiritual California retreat that Hamm's character (Don Draper) attended. At the time, Hamm, 51, was in a long-term relationship with Jennifer Westfeldt. The couple split months later after 18 years together.

Such a Draper move!

Was it her who was made to look like a double for the woman in the actual Coke commercial?

https://joycemillman.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/screen-shot-2015-05-18-at-12-48-07-pm.png

that's her:

https://publish.purewow.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/don-draper-and-anna-osceola-cat.jpg

I didn't really follow that show after the initital season, but I made sure to watch the finale since I'd heard it has some Esalen/Nepethe/Big Sur thing going on, I wanted to see how they handled it

XP OMG, that's too perfect!

A lot of time in the car today, a lot of radio. Not sure which episode would have worked best--S6 or S7--but one that got away: "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

Have to be whichever episode found Megan and Bonnie both heading back to L.A. independently on the same plane

That would have been perfect...except (I had to get the disc out to check: S7, E6) the episode doesn't end on the plane, it ends with Peggy, Don, and Pete in a Burger Chef; Peggy has her breakthrough idea on how to shoot the ad, camera pulls back, and they use an instrumental piece from The 400 Blows--one of the rare non-pop end-songs in the last couple of seasons.

I love the Burger Chef scene, but musically, I like our ending better.

(Actually, you didn't specify it had to be the last scene. I'm trying to remember if, by the time of the last couple of seasons, they ever used a pop song in the middle of an episode.)

Starting a rewatch with Mrs. Chap (first time for her), and it is remarkably slow by the standards of current TV dramas. She is very prone to drifting off and missing ket plot points when we start a new series - it's happened a few times in this and she's asked what's going on and I've had to say 'Er.... yeah, actually nothing'.

The most obvious modern equivalent is White Lotus, but even the famously uneventful recent season of that seems packed with dramatic and comic set pieces in comparison.

Also Don is way more of a prickly asshole than I remember.

Not that we're not digging it, but the vibey-ness of it takes some getting used to compared to modern genre-fied telly.

Baseball writer on his Substack today, writing about the Rafael Devers mess in Boston: "As for Devers' hurt feelings and professional pride? As Don Draper said — and my pal Joe Sheehan quoted — 'That’s what the money is for.'" (He mostly sides with Devers, I should point out.)

Ugh--Baseball writer Joe Posnanski...

My own private Idaho--no one else is thinking about the ending of Mad Men in 2025...Was driving out in the country yesterday and heard “A Horse with No Name” on the radio. It’s one of the things I picked, in advance of the final episode, as a possibility for the last song. It was more of an intuitive choice than anything else, but yesterday I think I came to a better understanding of how it might have worked.

I’d never thought about this before, but I realized Mad Men had to end one of two ways: either with Don finally--completely and fully, no looking back ever again--accepting that he was indeed this guy Don Draper, along with the life that came with that, or else finally (completely, etc.) rejecting the fiction of Don Draper and acknowledging who he really was, Dick Whitman. The final episode walked him right up to the precipice of the second option--his phone call with Peggy, where one after another he confronted the most awful things he’d done as Don--and then, deus ex machina, saved Don at the last possible second.

“A Horse with No Name” was the other ending. Don leaves the retreat (he doesn’t part with his car in the previous episode) and sets back out on the road. The song plays: “I've been through the desert on a horse with no name/It felt good to be out of the rain.” That was his 20 years as Don Draper, “the perfect disguise above”--that’s over now. The song plays in its entirety as Don drives. You could either keep the camera on scenery rolling by, occasionally cutting back to Don, or--a bit cheesy maybe--intercut blurry or bleached-out flashbacks from the previous seven seasons. (Overall, it’d be a bit like Claire’s final journey in Six Feet Under.) It would end with Don pulling into a gas station or something, where he’d respond to someone introducing himself with “Dick--Dick Whitman.”

Not as good as the real ending, which was brilliant. (Besides which, you’d probably have to lose the scene with Leonard telling his fridge story...I don’t know, maybe not.) But, if that’s the other way the series could have ended, with Don giving way to Dick Whitman, I think that would have worked both dramatically and conceptually.

I just watched The Fountainhead for the first time, and I see that's where they got the "I don't think about you at all" line for Mad Men.

And yes, that's a good point about popular sings: whenever an epic finale is around the corner, it's hard to resist trying to predict what song will get used.

My own private Idaho--no one else is thinking about the ending of Mad Men in 2025

So much so that we missed commemorating the 10th anniversary of the finale back in May!

My accidentally appropriately unnecessary double ampersand in the thread still kills me.

the actor for harry crane came up on my tiktok fyp this week and he was showing off his raspberry pi-powered homemade jukebox in his garage. very midwestern dad coded irl.

A lot was elided between (a) and (b)--(b) opens up with Don openly making jokes about his dark, secretive past--so you needed two ampersands.

Honest to god, I'm sitting in a local pub waiting for wings right now and "A Horse with No Name" just started up. America is stalking me, a great metaphor for a Canadian right now.

I also found out today, when I looked up the lyrics, that I've been mishearing a line for half a century: I've always heard "in the desert, you can remember your name" as "you can't remember your name." Which doesn't really make sense in view of the following line, but I didn't pay that any mind.