Well, it looks like Peggy’s going to get to do more than random sight gags this episode. AMC’s sneak peak makes it look like Peggy gets forced to take a recent grad junior copywriter under her wing.
Bam! Who always said Duck was a drunk loser even when others said “No, no… he cleaned up?” Me!.
Did Doris (Sunday morning girl) call Don ‘Dick’???
Yup. Shows how far he’s slipping off his game.
With that (my initial gloat) out of the way, it got barely dragged up from a “Meh” to a “Liked” based on the final scene. I suppose that’s a little unfair since it was acted well enough and the story was well enough told but watching Don go through his drunken bender was an uncomfortable way to spend an hour. Peggy-centric plots never really grabbed me (I disliked her in S1 and never really warmed back up to her in full doses).
I’ve been wanting to see the “How Don got hired” story for a long while now though so that was good times.
Speaking of drunk losers; they’re certainly hitting “Don is falling apart” over our heads. Meeting with client drunk off his ass, blackouts, timeloss, introducing himself with his real name and forgeting about it. When’s erectile dysfunction goint to show up?
And Peggy. I sure as hell wasn’t expecting that :eek:! And loser art director ends up scurring away to “take a shower”. She had good reason to be pissed at not going to the awards. Not only she get passed over as a creative profesional; she got passed over as pretty eye candy! Admittedly Roger, not Don, probally invited Joan, but still.
So… over the years, Don has turned into Roger? And Roger’s nebbishy little cousin-in-law would be the equivalent of the new Don? Not really impressed with this.
Despite the similarities of their hiring, I don’t think the new hire is supposed to be the “new Don”. If nothing else, Don showed some drive in getting his job; making a book of 20 ads, working his way in to see Roger, etc. This guy had six identical ads, some other people’s ads in his book and the ability to say “I shook hands with Roger Sterling winkwink*”.
I liked Roger’s juvenile but funny reference to “Ted Chow-guh-guh” after asking just how many unnecessary vowels were in Chaough.
I didn’t really see the point in the whole Peggy/Dipwad plotline unless it’s to build up to something.
I know there was such a thing as “drying out” in the 1960s (basically where you went to either voluntarily or involuntarily be forced to get sober), but did they have anything akin to the alcohol rehab centers of today?
Actor trivia: I didn’t realize that Jared Harris (who plays Lane) is the son of Richard Harris. Knowing it I can see a resemblance, but only because I look for it.
The guy who played the dipwad bore a striking resemblance to Andy Richter. It was more in the intonation than physical appearance though.
There were some health oriented resort style “sanitoriums” where people could “dry out”.
Not everyone was as blase about drinking in the 50’s & 60’s as the show seems to indicate
The Days of Wine and Roses (1962) comes to mind.
My parents and their social circle were in their early 30’s at that time, and big, big drinkers. I was in grade school. I remember a few somewhat grim mornings-after, but can’t recall anyone in their acquaintance who had to go dry out.
Whenever I watch Mad Men, I feel like never touching alcohol again! :eek:
Interesting parallels with Roger and Don’s benders (Roger “hiring” Don all those years ago after a boozy morning, Don having to hire Roger’s diminutive relative after stealing his “cure for the common” line.)
That was Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He’s one of those actors who, like Vincent Kartheiser, will probably look boyish well into his 40’s.
Watching John Hamm play a giddy drunk was kinda fun. Nice to see him be something other than stern, angry, predatory.
Meh. Didn’t like it. So that’s (IIRC) two hated it, one (or two? I dunno… ) didn’t like it’s, one liked it.
I think Jon Hamm’s portrayal of “early Don/Dick” is too Gomer-ish, to literally wide-eyed and naive. It’s too obvious, again.
I hope this is a building year. Seems off its game.
I hated this episode. I’m really on the verge of no longer watching. The storyline this year is totally meh. I dislike all the characters. Even Roger is turning into a one-note. And didn’t the little copywriter steal “the cure for the common…” from Alka-Seltzer’s “cure for the common cold?” Or did I totally misunderstand?
I thought this, too, and it was annoying. They should have made Don look, I dunno, different. Younger, different haircut, more badly dressed? Different! He just looked like regular Don Draper only his eyes were so wide open as if he had some bad plastic surgery, and that was just annoying.
The earlier version of Joan looked a little Marilyn Monroe-ish.
He also did the wide-eyed open-face thing when we first saw young Don in California. There must be a better way to convey youth, but I don’t know what it would be.
Well, I wouldn’t expect a fur salesman to be poorly dressed but I get the criticism. Roger’s claims of “finding” Don seem to be a bit overstated.
How Peggy got her groove back?
I guess this was supposed to be a victory for her to humiliate the cocky poser artist but she still seems to be treated like crap around the office. Anyway, I didn’t care for the B plot either.
I have no idea how these things work and suppose it may vary from place to place but could Pete, as junior partner, really block a decision by the four senior partners to hire Cosgrove? I know that was resolved anyway but I wondered about it during the scene in Pryce’s office.
“Junior” and “senior” have no particular meaning in a small partnership. What matters is what proportion of the shares each one holds. If it came down to a votes of the shares, Pete would lose. (Just like when Sterling Cooper voted to merge with Putnam Powell, they didn’t bother with Don’s shares because he couldn’t out vote them.)
But in s small partnership, you don’t want go have to subject routine decisions to adversarial voting. It messes with mojo, morale, and stuff like that.
(Also, just because Zpete’s name isn’t in the company doesn’t automatically confer junior status, whatever that might be. It’s a different issue.)
Actually, I’m finding this season to be the best since the first season. I like what’s going on with Don, Peggy, and Pete. I still miss Paul and wish for more office doofus scenes.
“A cure for the common cold” is an old cliche. It’s not something that Alka-Seltzer invented. Advertising slogans often play off of things like that.
And I just realized that Megan is played by Jessica Pare, who made a brief but memorable appearance in Hot Tub Time Machine. Whoo.