☭ UHX

I am behind. I have a to do list item that says, 'Catch up on Mad Men'. But the reason I am behind is both being bad at TV and also, not super compelled!

Also am loving Sally so much. I like your interpretation of Megan begin there to make Don feel old and treat him the way he has treated people. The other thing about Megan is that she is a genuinely nice person, a kind person, and what will the eventual storyline of that kind of person be, at Draper Draper Sterling Price or whatever the new name is?

I fucking LOVED Pete/Lane fistfight. I really like Lane and hope he gets developed more. His weird pervy affliction but then his absolutely love/respect for competence, such that he is literally the only person on the show who actually sees Joanie as a human being, because she's so competent, even as he also wants to see her boobs so bad. I think that relationship is really interesting.

LOVED when Joanie told her husband she's glad the army makes him feel like a real man because she's sick of trying to do it. SINGLE MOTHER JOAN

I think the show is less gut-wrenchingly compelling, for sure, but I think it's got more of a slow burn that I am still pretty into. I think things are going to unfold strangely and slowly, as these people try to make their way through the sixties, groping toward self-knowledge and usually failing.

I think when the show is funny it is the funniest show on television, because you never expect it to be funny. When Harry asks Don if he wants the last cheeseburger? "They're GONE? You got two dozen! I thought you were getting them for your family"

Megan's inaccurate French Canadianness is really annoying to me. Why not just hire an actual French Canadian? WHY NOT HIRE THAT GIRL WHO WAS THE ONLY GOOD PART ABOUT PAN AM? She's awesome.

The dinner party at Pete and Trudi's house was amazing, right? Pete's constant emasculation. Is Pete going to murder somebody? I loved how that episode kept making us think someone was going to commit suicide but then no one did.

oh my g. We were trying to figure out the C thing. How Don assumed she was going to die... like he wanted her to? "Say what you always say." "Everything's going to be all right." That made me think they are going to get back together.

I think Megan has a dark, super jealous and selfish side... like they are playing up her "female cattiness." From outside USA=passionate and emotional?

Oh and anja is also annoyed by the inauthenticity of Megan. Her background is French-Canadian and Megan's accent bugs her a lot.

Whoa, you're so right! (About Megan's dark side). that's intense. I love the call about Peggy/Joan predicting this season. I somehow hadn't really put it together that Megan was displaying this weird streak. But it's totally true. I mean I have definitely felt that Don's focus on her and on being So Happy All The Time Being Married has been creepy but I hadn't really looked at the part she was playing in it. Taunting him about his age!!

I also agree though that the show isn't as compelling as it once was. It's still really awesome but it totally doesn't have that "WTF" moment as the end credits roll anymore. I still am trusting that it is going to take us somewhere cool though.

I loved when Roger thought he was being profound by saying, "When people are looking at you, they're usually not even thinking about you," and Don was like, "Lots of people that haven't taken LSD already know that, Roger." Made me laugh so hard.

Have you seen that dumb article that predicts Pete's death? It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

I think its going to be hard to top last season. All the stuff with Anna Draper was the best.

I could buy Pete dying/killing himself. I could also buy him just getting old and being a shitty husband/person. He's a rich pampered kid who won't grow up and has everything he desires but is eternally unhappy.

His baby is a daughter, remember how her name is TAMMY.

I really love Pete Campbell as a character. He so perfectly rides the exact edge between sociopath and just-a-regular-dummy that I never, never know which one he is.

I wonder if he and Peggy will ever have intensity again? It's so intense that they had a baby together and they both know it, and now they're just like "you're off the beans campaign, peace."

I am also interested in Peggy. She also seems sort of in between some mild sociopathy and normalcy. Like who is Peggy? What does she want? Why did she give that guy the handjob??

I haven't seen the most recent episode so I would appreciate no major spoilers, if possible, FYI

Also why does Don love Howard Johnsons so much????????

Also don't you love Don and Sally's relationship? I feel like they are becoming actual human friends, like they actually speak to one another as humans.

Hand job analysis:

Pete appears just long enough to tell Peggy she's off the account, and Stan says, "Women usually want to please." Rather than punch a wall, throw a phone, or hire a whore, Peggy opts to assert her femininity by giving a hand job to a stranger who gifts her some marijuana in a darkened movie theater during a matinee. She smirks a little while washing her hands, feeling self-satisfied about her spontaneous secret reach-around. Maybe she is Don after all! You're not an uptight prig if you gave a rando a stoned hand job during a safari movie, right? The HJ was ostensibly in return for Peggy puffing on the joint, but it was really just an overstressed and formerly eager-to-please person confirming her basic human right to do whatever the fuck she wants. Lapsed Catholic Peggy realizes that neither God nor Don blessed the pack of gum, and she bombed Heinz on her own merits.

Also, I think it is Dick Whitman who loves Howard Johnsons because it is this weird normal family thing he never had. Maybe.

One time I stayed at a Howard Johnson and when I complained about the cockroaches they said I was a prostitute. So this makes DW's love of it even funnier to me.

I agree with UBS: I have really loved it so far this season. I really like the Megan character, especially her dark sides, and am curious where it goes. I think the transition into this next time period was really well executed. To me it seems perhaps inevitable that it's leading up to a cool feminist injection. I do think the storyline of Betty spinning off seems pretty disparate, but I have faith that she'll be making more appearances this season, somehow. I've had some cool conversations with my mom about this show, especially about the rampant sexism and general shitty Don behaviors, and she has been pretty adamant that a lot of the portrayals are pretty true to life in this time period. It's hard sometimes to distance myself from the realities of the times at hand in this show, but there are some pretty brutal truths being played out, and I find myself commending the creators for not backing off of fairly intense topics.
It also seems pretty apparent that Don's character is definitely becoming more and more Dick Whitman, the bizarre dreams and strange hallucinations all seem to point to a some future breaking point where he will have to confront this person.
The LSD scene with Roger? SO GOOD. The scene where Peggy lets her coworker stay the night? SO GOOD.

I gave up after season 1. Should I get back in? It was just hard for me to relate to the characters?

Kevin, HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!

Amazing entry into this conversation. Like what are we even supposed to say to that??

Probably if you didn't like season 1 you won't like seasons 2, 3, 4, or 5, I guess.

Reminds me of when Lost ended, and then my friend Elizabeth decided to STARt watching it for the first time, and she watched like 2 episodes and then emailed me frantically wanting to know if "Walt ever finds his dog again," and I was just like "!??"

edit: My post got posted twice. What?

I watched it on the train out here last year in the middle of the night when I could no longer see the landscape, and in the scenically boring parts of the midwest. I was alternating between it and Degrassi, which weirdly, I related to way more. I did get caught up in the drama though, and got through like 8 episodes before checking out. I'm not sure what to make of Mad Men being so deeply aestheticized but I guess Twin Peaks is too?

Kevin I read your post as saying "the scientifically boring parts of the midwest"

EMPIRICALLY PROVEN TO BE BORING

you guys, the last two episodes killed it so hard for me. I was so blown away.
The darkness of Sally's experience at the ball...that feeling from childhood when you think you're having a fun time relating normally to somebody and then something happens (witnessed blowjob) that strikes home with brutal clarity the reminder that you are a CHILD and that all these grownups are on their own weird, tawdry, corrupted journeys that don't actually involve you. Totally devastating to realize that her fun time with Roger was somehow all just setup for him getting that blowjob. The waiter saying "are you finished with that," meaning her shirley temple, but really meaning HER CHILDHOOD.

Then the next episode! Dude, I feel like what we are seeing is DON NO LONGER GETTING IT. I couldn't believe when he turned off the Beatles song. It was so fucking jarring and dark and powerful. Don no longer gets it--he's 40, he's no longer the coolest dude in the room. Youth culture is passing him by! He doesn't understand music! And he's got this young wife who does, and what does it all mean? What will it mean when Don Draper is old and doesn't understand how people think anymore? He's becoming a worse ad man because he doesn't get why everyone wants a Beatles song in their ad or whatever.

Also so weird, with Megan being so good at the pitch but then wanting to quit, what does it mean?

So nice when Joanie congratulated Peggy on living in sin. Also Pete's weird affair, god, Pete is so going off the deep end. He's trying to be Don but he has too many feelings!! Pete, that is not how you have an affair!!!! You're being a creep! He can't just acknowledge that he wants to live in the city and be a cool guy. He even likes his wife, but feels imprisoned by just the fact of her. That funny conversation with the affair lady about all the hobos in the city. "there aren't THAT many," all annoyed

YEAH last two eps SO GOOD.

Pete I think is probably the darkest soul. That beatles song pretty much ruled. 250k well spent.

dammit stop looking at this thread (note to self)

yeah, that was incredible.

Ok, caught up. It was good, I agree.

Is that Kurt Cobain on the right?

Can we add a LOL button plz?

Don's reaction to what Peggy told him in ep 11???? I DIED! So perfect.

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I mean right when she told him where she was going to work and he was like "mhmm" and stifled his rage so hard.
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