Mad Men season 2 discussion

[indesertum]

I guess I'm a little behind. Pete seems like such an awkward character. I can't tell if the character is supposed to be awkward and the actor's really good or if the actor's just awkward in acting.

edit. finally 100 posts

 

[bachbeet]

Very few of these characters are supposed to be likable. I think that's the point in a series about the advertising business. Cutthroat and all that. And, I think the times when Don actually appears happier are when he's not involved in being an ad man. I think it shows he may not like what he does. He got really excited about those hot rods. It brought out his inner desires. He probably loved selling cars a lot more than he likes what he's currently doing. It also probably repeats a theme other writers have posed before, especially about that era -- a lot of people working at jobs they didn't like but which they felt they had to in order to conform to what society wanted them to be/do. The dehumanization of such conformity, etc. No one pursuing their dreams; rather they simply followed the crowd and lived lives of quiet desperation.

 

[Bradford]

Originally Posted by indesertum

mmm. and somebody please explain the lemon volkswagen beetle ad. i dont see how its witty. maybe i have to actually read the ad or have lived in the era, but i dont understand how lemon has to do with anything

The early Volkswagen beetle ads are widely recognized as breaking new ground in the field of advertising... Here's a good site discussing their impact.

http://www.greatvwads.com/

Originally Posted by indesertum

oh and what does freddy peeing? seizure? have to do with alcoholism.

Freddy's drinking to the point that he pees his pants is a fairly telling sign that he is no longer able to control his drinking. That's often a symptom of alcoholism.

 

[robbie]

the nazi propaganda guys needed work after the war, thats why the ads don't make any sense

no, not really those are some of the best written and ads.

 

[DarkPinstripeSuits&OTCs]

They need to start utilizing Sal a lot more, other than being in group settings. As it stands, I'm losing interest in this show.

 

[robbie]

I thought the dinner w/ Ken was good. He is one of the flatter characters.

Don,Betty,Joan,Peggy,Roger,and Pete are what I'd think are the shows central characters. The rest aren't as crucial to the storylines IMO.

 

[Saucemaster]

Originally Posted by bcate3

The way the writers are exploring the dual sides of Don Draper seems a bit clumsy to me. He's either this heartless, savvy, self-absorbed ad exec or this lost, wild-eye country boy-man. Can't he struggle with both sides at the same time? Along those lines, the depiction of Betty is more interesting to me. She vacillates moment by moment from the perfect suburban wife to the immature, spoiled woman to the bored, mean-spirited friend. The story-line of setting up her two riding partners and then chastising her friend for having an affair was brilliant.

+1, Betty setting her friend up to live out Betty's own fantasy, letting her blame the friend, feel morally superior, and further playing to her self-pity, was brilliant. And I actually thought that Jon Hamm was very weak in the Dick Whitman scenes in this episode. It may have been the fault of the direction, but I was not impressed with his acting (and he's normally solid).

Originally Posted by bachbeet

No one pursuing their dreams; rather they simply followed the crowd and lived lives of quiet desperation.

This is why the scene with Joan and Peggy--when Peggy gets the office, and asks who she should see about getting the name on the door changed--was so good. Joan is sitting there, newly realizing that the life she thought she was supposed to want, the one she'd been working towards, was nothing like what it's supposed to be, and right in front of her Peggy is achieving something that Joan never even thought to dream of. I thought the actress who played Peggy did a particularly good job playing that scene, too. Genuinely excited for Joan, a little gushy about how dreeeeeaaamy the doctor is... but fundamentally unmoved, and much happier with her own newly-realized goal, the office.

 

[DarkPinstripeSuits&OTCs]

I like Joan too. Don is disappointing me with this who seprarate storyline now. I wanna see a catfight between Joan and Peggy one of these days.

 

[Flambeur]

I am really really waiting for the return of a badass don draper.. I am hoping that he is going to come back as a force to be reckoned with, perhaps throwing the merger talks upside down, grabbing for power, etc...

We'll see...

 

[Bradford]

Season Finale this week.

Damn - that was fast.

 

[limping_decorum]

Originally Posted by Flambeur

I am really really waiting for the return of a badass don draper.. I am hoping that he is going to come back as a force to be reckoned with, perhaps throwing the merger talks upside down, grabbing for power, etc...

We'll see...
I don't think don will be back at the office this season.....

If he is, it will seem rushed.

Did anyone else think the editing job on the last episode was ****?

 

[Baron]

The edititing was very confusing. It was only on second watching that I was entirely clear what scenes were in the present and which were in flashback.

There were some interesting clues - Don/Dick meets those hot rod guys and introduces himself as Dick, though that scene is in the present, and also says he's looking for work. It's also clear that there's no real money being made in the hot rod scene - it looks like he's in a great position to basically invent the whole business/marketing side of hot rod culture.

Don/Dick's relationship with the original Mrs. Draper is illuminating - she's an independent free thinker, a strong woman. Betty isn't that - he fell in love with her because of what she represented for his aspirations as a "Don Draper." She's pretty, educated, from money. The perfect trophy wife for a ambitous NY executive. The women he has affairs with are more like the original Mrs. Draper. The beat poet, the Menckens department store heiress, the show-biz power wife - all of them are strong, independent, smart, unconventional. If he comes back to NY I see he and Peggy having and affair or even falling in love. Plus the whole culture is about to explode, so who knows how they'll deal with that.

 

[Saucemaster]

^^^ Re: Don's paramours, the show has always been pretty heavy-handed with its pretty unoriginal thesis that the culture of the fifties/early sixties was one of heavily scripted social roles that were ultimately trapping those who were playing them, the extreme example of which (of course) is "Don" being literally an alternate identity. Honestly, though, this is one of the things that sort of bugs me about the show. It's a played-out view of the era, and however much it captures something true, it's also uninteresting and seems one-dimensional. It's one of the reasons that I most like the characters who are actually comfortable and thriving in the culture (like Roger

).

 

[bachbeet]

Sauce: I somewhat agree with your criticism. But, I think what this show is doing well is showing the slow changes that were occurring in the early 60s. The shift from the conformity, etc to the cultural revolution. The younger employees at the firm vs the older ones.

 

[Saucemaster]

Originally Posted by bachbeet

Sauce: I somewhat agree with your criticism. But, I think what this show is doing well is showing the slow changes that were occurring in the early 60s. The shift from the conformity, etc to the cultural revolution. The younger employees at the firm vs the older ones.

I still like the show a lot, and occasionally they introduce some real ambiguity. I just get a little disappointed occasionally that it's not quite as good as I want it to be (judged by my own personal standards, obviously).