Yes to all of this.
I loved that with Pete. Not only for the painfully awkward scene with Hollis in the elevator but also that Pete just really doesn’t get what the big deal is with wanting integration. He’s just seeing profit which is kind of admirable in a honest capitalist sort of way.
Yes, I think with Pete, particularly as the series goes on, the two things that define him are a belief in fairness and capitalism. The fairness thing is what’s so fascinating to me about him as a character - he’s obviously privileged as all get out, but he has this belief that he’s earned that, through a combination of family, hard work, doing the right thing. The whole thing with Don in season 1 is based out of Pete believing that he’s the right person for the job - and his anger at thinking that Don didn’t play by the same rules as everyone else. (Ron Howard: He didn’t.) And I’m not saying that Pete ever becomes “woke” as the show moves through the 1960s, but Kartheiser does a great job of showing how Pete has become more aware of himself and his surroundings as the show goes on. I can’t really say much more without spoiling, argh!
You are right, though, that Peggy is probably the show’s GOAT.
Oh, and Codename, if you’re interested, this is an absolutely fantastic book I reccommend checking out, which is heavily annotated, and includes, among other things, a timeline of the show that basically tells you when every episode takes place.
Very well said about Pete.
And thanks for that recommendation! Calling it ‘Carousel’ is perfect (loved that whole scene). I’ll check it out when I’m done.
Four episodes into Season 4:
Fuck I love this show.
Creepy Kid Glenn is kind of hilarious, in that Matt Weiner never recast him because it was his son playing that role, yet cycled through a billion different Bobby Drapers.
I’m right there with you in the love for the SCDP office - great design throughout.
I think it was really smart to end season 3 on such a relatively high note for Don professionally, but a mess personally, and have that continue. The spiral he’s on that starts season 4 is just monumentally compelling to watch, particularly with how they resolve it. I say no more.
“The Good News” (the one with Don in California with Anna) is also one of my favorite episodes of the show. There’s something about the Don-Anna relationship that I really respond to, and I think it’s just heartbreaking how that episode ends. You get the sense that Don could have been happy if he’d stayed with Anna, or stayed in California and worked on hot rods. But he couldn’t get out of his way. Stephanie’s a great character as well.
And you’re right about the Don-Allison thing. Such a low point for him, which is really saying something.
One of the things I love about this show is that they add little shades to the characters that are never fully addressed again. The stuff with Don and the call girl who slaps him around is one of those things. It makes perfect sense for what we know about Don, but we never come back to it.
The episode where Allison gets upset over Pond’s has one of my all-time favorite reaction shots:
![[Image: giphy.gif]](https://forum.frameworkcast.com/uploads/db6724/original/2X/d/dd33ee1d85ac92c80e32330f9f9d7be438b9529f.gif)
Just finished watching ‘The Suitcase’…
![[Image: tenor.gif?itemid=3565300]](https://forum.frameworkcast.com/uploads/db6724/original/2X/5/52dcd0bb7fef7a64349e7fac5a826929fe67ad19.gif)
“THAT’S WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR!”
No, but Suitcase is an all-timer for the show. When Peggy takes his hand at the end…man oh man.
Forgot to mention that Kiernan Shipka is playing Sabrina in that Archie Horror adaptation, and she’s gonna be great.
Beautiful stuff.
And seeing Don break down like he does. Hamm can fucking act. That hit me right where it hurts.
Also, goddamn Harry is antisemitic as fuck.
I’ve always loved how the Don/Peggy relationship is portrayed and this was definitely a watershed moment for the two of them.
Told you Harry was The Worst.
You’ve been pretty on-the-money with everything so far.
Betty’s really getting the short-shift this season and I’m not crazy about that. Also, Henry sucks chode.
They never really figure out what to do with Betty after the divorce, imo. She remains a necessary part of the show, as Sally increases in importance, and a lot of her character is defined in relation to her parents. But Betty herself is never really fully integrated into the show again.
I see what you mean now. Since Betty’s entire S5 arc can be boiled down to “gets fat”. There’s some hints to the anger and jealousy she feels towards Megan and how happy and honest her relationship with Don appears but it’s never given its proper due.
One of the issues with binging the show like I’m doing is that there’s just SO MUCH to discuss. I really wish I could go back in time and watch it week to week to give every episode the respect and discussion it deserves. But capping off the back half of Season 4 and ALL of Season 5 this weekend…all I can say is…
This. Fucking. Show.
That one-two punch in season five of “The Other Woman” and “Commissions and Fees” is just masterful.
I absolutely love the editing in “Other Woman.” Such a great way to play with the shifting nature of time and memory - so that when the “twist” (i.e., that Don was “too late” to stop Joan) comes, it’s like a knife to the gut.
One of the recaps or retrospectives pointed out this great little detail in “Commissions and Fees” as an example of how action reveals character. Don and Roger are much more comfortable seeing and dealing with a dead body than the others at SCDP because they’ve been in war.
Season 5 is maybe the best season of the back half overall. If you made a list of the best episodes of the series, it’d probably be pretty heavy on episodes from that season.
There was talk for a while that Jon Hamm was David Fincher’s first choice for GONE GIRL, but couldn’t get out of his Mad Men contract early. Episodes like “Far Away Places” and “Mystery Date” (oh, god, Mystery Date is fuuuuuuuuuucked), you can kind of see what that would have been like.
Love Pete’s arc in S5 - particularly his stuff with Alexis Bledel. Who he later married IRL! And had a kid with!
Also, five is where we meet or get to know Abe better. Abe is the fucking worst of the Olson boyfriends.
I think Season 5 might be my favorite season. I love how Megan is included in the show, as she is - theoretically - Don’s perfect woman: a young, beautiful woman who is naturally gifted at advertising. Only once she exhibits some agency and decides to be independent from Don does it fall apart, which I think is the perfecf summation of Don as a character.
There is a lot of great stuff in Seasons 6 and 7, but I think I would have been content if the show ended on the final shot of Season 5.
So, if you haven’t read the article about Betty Draper, Codename, do it now. Strongest defense of her I have read online.
I have read it and it is wonderful! Totally nails why I feel for Betty as much as I do. Yes, she’s an awful person, same as everyone else on this show but she’s an interesting examination into why she’s so awful.
Megan is amazing (and GAWDAYUM btw) and I totally buy that Don would propose to her out of the blue. Not just for how different from Betty and how great she is with the kids. But also because…she’s Megan.
Boone, that twist was like three knives getting twisted into my heart simultaneously. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. I’m happy that Joanie’s made partner because she more than deserves it for her work but…not like this…not like this…
I felt like Season 5 in particular really examined how many of the characters try to “be Don” in different ways and how it doesn’t work for them.
Peggy tries to be Don in her business meetings. When Heinz shoots down her ad idea for the third time she wants to do the Don thing where she shouts and harangues the client into accepting the idea but since she’s a woman in the 60’s it backfires on her harshly and she’s pulled from the account. Which is one of the factors that causes her to leave SCDP.
Lane tries to be Don in that he tries to both be the flirtatious sex hound with “Delores” after he finds the wallet till that blows up in his face a bit, leading to a shot I loved, with the glass office door closing on him with the words DRAPER PRICE written on them. And when he tries to bend or break the rules to help his goals. Even going so far as to forge Don’s signature on the cheque. And well…fuck. Poor Lane. Harris was amazing in the role and it was a harsh gutshot when…that happened. Fuck…poor Lane.
And of course let us not forget FUCKING PETE! FUCKING PETE! has been trying to be Don since the start but it really becomes apparent here. Him riding the train into work felt like a direct callback to Don in Season 1, who I’m pretty sure rode the same exact train. So of course we get these examinations into how he tries and be the alpha male man’s man. And how he repeatedly fails at all of it. Wants to fix a leaky pipe and be the man of the house? You’re gonna get shown up. Want to be more assertive in your business? You’re gonna get called a “grimy pimp”, live up to that name and get punched in the face. Want to have a steamy affair? Your partner’s not gonna remember you and you’re gonna get punched in the face AGAIN! The one who tries the hardest to be Don and who fails the hardest because…well, he’s FUCKING PETE!
And then we have the fact that the one person trying his damn hardest to NOT be Don…is Ol’ Dick Whitman himself. In fact the whole of Season 5 he tries everything in his power to not be the person he was. He tries to be open and honest about his past with Megan. He tries to be faithful. He tries to support her in her dreams like he never did with Betty. He’s REALLY fighting his worse nature. To the point that when he’s confronted with the ghost of his old actions (the fever dream he suffers) his impulse is to literally kill it and hide it under the bed. But he can’t just shove those problems under the bed and forget about them. They’re too tied into the carefully crafted persona of Don Draper that he’s created. Try as he might he can’t escape it. And with the final shots of the season showing him literally walking into darkness and promising a return to his unfaithful ways this is only cemented in my mind. Don can’t change because that would mean confronting all of his identity issues as both Dick and Don and I don’t see him doing that. He’s too far gone.
LAWD, Season 5 is incredible, my pick for the best MM season, which would have to rank it, what, top 5 or 10 of all time overall?
There is a theory that I quite like that says that everyone agreeing to the scheme in “The Other Woman” is the point of no return/original sin for SCDP, and everything changes after they sell their souls on that deal. (Yes, Joan consented and got what she wanted, but there’s an argument to be made that they never even should have brought it to the table.)
I just started watching this series for the first time on Netflix.
Finished 2 seasons so far and loving it. Surprisingly, it made me care about Betty. She’s a hard character to like but i felt sympathy for her as time went on.
Don with Anna is a revelation. He is so free and at ease with her. Genuinely happy.
I believe you mean Dick.