Mad Men Season 5

I thought I'd start a discussion thread for the new Mad Men season mostly because I loved a scene in this week's episode and wanted to see if anyone else thought it was as awesome.

Spoiler: show

OMG SOMEONE FINALLY PUNCHED THE SH*T OUT OF PETE. And it was LANE!! Amazing.

Well, this didn't catch on last time but I thought I'd give it another try. I really loved last night's episode! No weird gimmicks this week, I thought it was kind of funny and I loved Sally in this episode!

I really liked the glimpse at Megan's parents as well. She's started to grow on me as a character and as a good match for Don.

Anyone else?

I'm totally behind, but I'm going to try and catch up this week. I'll pop back in when I'm up to speed.

Awesome, Plain Pearl!

Has anyone felt that the season has had a continually sour mood to it? Rather than see the 60s as opening, it feels like it has become a picture of a small world spiraling downwards. Don needs to get back to California, his space of liberation. Instead we're getting more of his descent (open elevator shafts, anyone, subliminal fascination with the devil's underworld).

You think? I don't necessarily agree. I think he's really trying to be a better person this season. He's actively trying to avoid the mistakes he made in his marriage to Betty with Megan, for example. He's being more honest with more people in his life about his past than he ever has before. And instead of living shut up in the 'burbs like the last time he was married (which also made his philandering easier, of course), he's living in a fabulous, open, very modern apartment in Manhattan. Don doesn't really have any reason to go back to California anytime soon--Anna is dead.

He went one time with one business (McDonnell-Douglas, I think) and then went AWOl with the Eurotrash before visiting Anne. This season has, I think, been shot much more at night, and the light colors come mainly from the walls of SDCP. I thought the last show when Megan told Don not to open the window because of the smog summed it up - this is a poison cloud environment. The show two before the last was all about the failure of imagination (this is the one when Megan's parents visit).

I also think it's important to remember that this is a world of New York Republican Party people. That's a kind of weird perspective on the time, and if you were part of that world that wondered about the difference between John Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller, then you probably did see the 60s as a disappointment.

He did go that one time on business but originally, someone else was supposed to go and Don bumped him at the last minute. So I think his intentions were to go visit Anna and was using business as an excuse.

Also, sure, Henry Francis and Roger and Burt Cooper and probably Pete and Harry are all Republicans but do you really think the rest of the characters are? Peggy (although she's said she's "not a political person" but if push came to shove)? Megan? Ken? Joan? Certainly not Kinsey (although of course he's long gone). Ginsburg? Maybe Don himself? I doubt it.

I think there's a difference between who they may actually vote for and the "world" they live in, which seems to me pretty GOP. For instance, the problem with Joan's ex was not in any way qualms about the war, but distance.

 Don used to be presented as someone hands off familiar with an alternative world (reading Frank O'Hara), but now barely knows the Beatles. It's age, of course, he's older and realizing, I think, he's become more corporate and less free to walk away than he did in earlier seasons (if you recall all the conversations with Roger when Don wouldn't sign a contract with the original firm). Don's got fewer options as time goes on, this is slowly sinking in, giving an autumnal air to the season. Maybe I'm wrong, but let's see how they end the season. Yet, at the moment, how many characters seem happy, peaceful, or even engaged with the changes in the air? Even Megan couldn't see the campiness of Dark Shadows, and she's the one who has gay friends.

Speaking of Kinsey....LOL!

haven't seen last night's episode so no spoilers!

OK, just watched it. LOL indeed! And I told ya that California is always where happiness is said to be.

But....

Spoiler: show

it does sort of bug me that the show consistently portrays alternative lifestyles as populated by frauds and grifters. It's like Weiner has some private grudge, which he compensates for by having his own son play the one child who is cynical about everything, as if he wasn't as confused as everyone else back then!

so that's

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two suicides Don is responsible for. I guess being hungry has its costs, as Don almost literally has blood on his mouth. And how meta is it that Weiner has his son speak to his main character, saying everything is crappy, but its still nice being in the driver's seat, again literally. Yet finally, a humanizing moment for Betty, it only took five years!

Spoiler: show

I don't know, I'm not sure that calling Don "responsible" for either suicide is really accurate. Someone who is mentally completely ok doesn't commit suicide because they got fired (or rejected by a long-lost older brother). Sure they might have muddled through, perhaps, if it hadn't happened but likely something else would have set them off. Or not, but they weren't happy.

And yes, Betty finally showed a shred of a maternal instinct. I loved the look of complete surprise on her face when Sally hugged her.

I haven't forgotten about this thread. I'm working my way up through the episodes!