Back to more gripping issues – Remember the doctor’s wife turned the conversation away from the lascivious discussion of homosexual bathroom behavior quickly to asking a question about the other couple’s children? Perhaps she is a more moral or what, throwback version of safer times gone by which attracts Don?
In the article that I linked, they said that Diller did host Carson in late December '67.
Don’t know if the updates were in the Slate article when it was first linked but now it has information that it has been confirmed that comedians Milt Kamen and also Soupy Sales were on the show the night in December 1967 that Phyllis Diller guest hosted.
But no indication that either told jokes about the war.
In this TV Guide article, Weiner says it wasn’t a reference to a real incident but just reflecting that during this period there were several incidents of guests talking about the war and upsetting advertising clients. The underlying crime and court martial that inspired the suposed joke is apparently real.
Didn’t one of the characters in Apocalypse Now have ears on a necklace? It seems too familiar to me to be remembering the actual event. I was only 4 or 5 years old at this time.
She was letting Don know that their kid wouldn’t be home. She also connived in setting up the party. I think her entire role this episode revolved around getting closer to Don.
Pretty much the entire party, she was flirting hard with Don; I thought initially it was just the usual over-the-top every woman loves Don thing, but I think they were telegraphing that the affair had been going on a while.
This has been said in bits and pieces, but I think Season 6 and 7 are going to be the spun-out destruction of Don Draper. The hotel ad is the first real warning: he can’t hold it all together any more. That he sees such a blatantly suicidal image as viable, in the way his other edgy ideas were, is telling.
Aw. I’m really not interesting in seeing his fall – especially stretched out so much. If the character arc is that is all comes tumbling down, I’d prefer it happen quickly – much like when the secretary filled out his background check info for the government aviation gig, and he thought he was boned.
But then, I’m a sucker for success porn – like the first half of Goodfellas is my favorite, and the second half is still great, but I don’t enjoy it as much.
Weiner has said that the show will end with a view of Don Draper as an 80-something in the modern day. Assuming he was telling the truth and doesn’t change his mind, it still doesn’t mean he can’t crash and burn (45 years is a long time), but I doubt he’s in a home for the indigent.
I’ve always predicted that Roger will jump from the roof to make the opening credits prophetic, or perhaps Pete if they don’t want to get rid of Roger (who in some ways is as much the heart of the show as Draper). Or Bert if they wanted to go longshot.
Really! I had not heard that but I have often envisioned an ending with Don in the present day, looking back. Very cool if that’s true and holds out.
I’d love to have it be that he’s been running a garage or a diner for 30 years, by choice.
If you’re interested in the show from a costuming perspective as well as a story one, Tom and Lorenzo have posted the first half of their weekly “Mad Style” recap. They also have what I think is a pretty good read on Betty’s rape comment and how it ties into her character.
Bolding mine. I really hope that’s a red herring. As far as ‘old age’ makeup has come, it still looks pretty terrible. It could completely unravel a quality series to wrap it up that way.
What on earth makes you think Don Draper will need old age makeup? He’ll be sitting in a bar next to Lindsey Lohan, looking exactly the same as has for the last five seasons.
Maybe they’ll send him to Walking Dead and he’ll be a zombie. (Their guys did a good job hepling out Breaking Bad when they needed a character’s face blown off, so old age make-up should be easier than that.)
“Rosebud.”
“Peggy.”
“Miss Blankenship…Karate Kid… mom.”
I have this image in my head about the way (IMO) “Mad Men” should end - it should end in the modern day, but at Don Draper’s funeral. After we see the ubiquitous graveside scene with an elderly Betty decked out in bright red sequins, Sally and her wife, and Peggy and the few remaining living SCDP employees (Ginsberg, Stan & Dawn) get together for a drink and discuss the fates of their former co-workers, but only in the most cryptic way:
“Sal’s wedding was LOVELY! You should’ve been there!”
“I just saw the movie version of Ken’s last book. They changed a lot of the plot.”
“Wow, I still can’t believe that whole mess about Kinsey’s apocalyptic death cult. Who would have thought it would end that tragically?”
“Well, Joan sent her regards, but you know she stays abroad these days - ever since that whole tabloid scandal back in the 80s…”
“Pete Campbell? That slimy weasel got everything he deserved!”
And then, we fade away to the modern day offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Olsen (that’d be Jane Sterling, Bert Cooper - still alive and kicking and reading an iPad in the lobby - Sally Draper and Peggy), where a despondant Gene Draper - who never overcame the trauma of his awful name - visits his sister Sally’s corner office. In a fit of despair, it’s as if the office floor simply melts away beneath him, and he tumbles out the 50th floor window to his death.)
I would like to see Don in decline… struggling with the impact of the internet. No more 5 martini lunches…just lunch at Micky D’s-with cold coffee.
In 2014 Don would probably be living in luxurious semi-retirement in Florida, separated from his his 32 year old (public records say 42 year old) fifth wife who is starring on REAL HOUSEWIVES OF CONNECTICUT. He’s secretly sleeping with Megan, who he reconnected with on an upscale senior’s cruise, and has hired a ghost writer to complete his debut novel “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DICK WHITMAN”. We briefly catch a glimpse of 2014 Betty when she moves into complex.
Sampiro, call me a sap (and I totally am), but I prefer to think he’s in that luxurious semi-retirement happily married after he met up with Rachel Menken, whose husband Tilden Katz died twenty years ago. I just like to feel Don and Rachel were right for each other, and he definitely seems to have been affected by losing her (note his having referenced her husband’s name in that illicit gambling joint long after just running into her by chance while out with Bobbie Barrett).
Either that, or he’s with Joan. My favorite aspect of last season was the increasing number of scenes where we saw the warm connection between the two.
I do like the appropriately-named Don Draper’s version very much, though I see Bobby being gay before I see Sally being gay. We have at least some evidence Sally’s into guys (not that this means anything in the longterm), but Bobby’s a clean slate. Actually Gene would be even better, considering his name was an homage to Betty’s allegedly perfect father, so that might cause Betty more angst. Anything that causes Betty angst is a-ok with me.
Actually, we can combine both versions by having Don fake his death, then having the “Autobiography of Dick Whitman” published posthumously while he’s living under yet another assumed name down in FL. 
Only his kids/grandkids know the truth.
Anyway as for the premiere… I too felt it was overlong and a bit self-indulgent. This wasn’t helped that it’s the first episode I’ve seen in years with commercials intact, since I’ve been relying on Netflix’s blissfully ad-free. I couldn’t believe how long those damn ad breaks were. Somewhere Harry was laughing maniacally.
My biggest issue, and this is probably just me being dull again, is just how unfamiliar everything felt. I love this show so much, and it took soooo long for us to get back into SCDP, and when we did it was just filled with unfamiliar faces and facial hair. I care about no one in creative except Don now, and mildly Dawn and Ginsburg. Both Ginsburg and Stan are nigh unrecognizable. The other two new creative team members are strangers. Very little Joan, Roger’s a mess, Sally’s hormonal and bratty, it looks like we’re on Bobby #1457, Peggy’s off doing her own thing (though still with Abe… hope her lingering look at Ted was only due to his open compliment of her, and not a hint that she’ll be cheating with her boss; that’s beneath her), most of Don’s story involved first an entirely new Hawaiian setting and then switched to focus on a doorman, then a doctor and his wife we’ve never met before (and no offense but this wife better be awesome in either intelligence, personality or sex, because I see nothing that would attract Don to her other than pure boredom with Megan). Waaah, I want familiarity!
BTW it took me ages to get a handle on Bob, that new accounts guy, and I’m not sure even now I’m all that sure about what his story is. I genuinely couldn’t figure out if he worked there or was from a company in the building trying to get his foot in the door. He also seemed amazingly clean-cut and early-1960s compared to the rest of the SCDP men… I mean, when Roger Sterling and Pete freakin’ Campbell are out-beatniking you when it comes to facial hair, you’re pretty behind-the-times. Maybe that’s his attempt to connect with Don. I’m happy to see that Ken’s pretty clean-cut too, except for his slightly longer hair.
Betty’s rape comment was just ridiculous, I don’t care that Weiner claims as it being in-character–it felt waaaay over-the-top. If it is in character, it’s a new side of her that is even more utterly repulsive than usual. Yeah, she seemed to say it because Henry at some point suggested they “spice” things up, but for God’s sake, he probably just suggested maybe having sex in a different vanilla position… I hardly think Henry was going for bondage or adding a goat or something that would’ve justified Betty’s offensive suggestions. Henry may be a passive aggressive guy (his behavior to Don on Gene’s birthday still rankles) but overall he’s a pretty good person.
Continuitywise, I do like that Betty’s slimmer than before but still hasn’t lost all the weight. That strikes me as very realistic. I know she lost her baby weight after a few weeks, but the big difference from then is that her weight gain last year was clearly due to emotional/psychological issues, not just pregnancy; Betty is likely finding it harder to stay on a diet if she’s not addressing what’s really eating at her (pun not intended).
I can’t help but think now that Betty’s a brunette Don might actually hook up with her again. He definitely goes for the dark types. But it’s not a good look for her. (Her people are Nordic, after all…)
Definitely preferred last year’s premiere to this one. But I’m still looking forward to see where this season takes us. Damn I love this show. And Jon Hamm… I could watch him all day, his face is so [del]beautiful[/del] expressive. (Seriously, he’s really a marvelously subtle actor. Also gorgeous. But talented. And an Adonis, did I mention that?)