Mad Men Series 2 [** Spoilers **]

lostexpectation

so its back, 3 eps in and not a lots happened...

lostexpectation

after finishing watching the third ep.
don draper is a bastard.

Amz

But you'd still buy whatever he's selling.

ixoy

lostexpectation wrote: »

so its back, 3 eps in and not a lots happened...

Were you expecting much to happen though really? I believe that the slow pace will prevent it ever becoming a big mainstream show. Even when something like "The Sopranos" was slow, it still involved the mafia which is a far easier sell than advertising executives.

I do wonder if there's going to be a plot arc this season - last year we had Draper's mysterious past. This year maybe it'll focus on Peggy's rise? Although even that doesn't seem as in force as her ascension last year. If anything maybe we'll see Don's private life crumble apart - there seems to be a fair bit of emphasis on how unhappy his wife is and she's been thrown into a few situations where she's overtly flirted and possibly been tempted to go further. How he'd react in that situation may see him lose his calm veneer to bad effect.

lostexpectation

i predict she'll nearly do alot of things this year.

i kept waiting for her to find out about his affair last year,so she found out and did nothing about it and nothing happenned and peggy got pregant and that was it.

BenjAii

It is a slow burner, but that hasn't stopped it taking off in the US, strange it isn't doing as well here.

I'm still really liking it though & its the only TV i'm making an effort to watch.

One thing i've always liked about it is its visual look and its recreation of how everything looked then. What makes it more interesting is that its a 21st century fantasy of the period, not a truthful reproduction; it says more about our tastes now. I was watching "North by Northwest", filmed in 1959 about a Madison Avenue Ad man, what you might take as a more representative reproduction of the period, all the men were still wearing hats; I haven't seen one in Mad Men !

I hope the Joan Holloway character gets a bit more to do, she seems wasted on her boring office work storylines.

ixoy

BenjAii wrote: »

It is a slow burner, but that hasn't stopped it taking off in the US, strange it isn't doing as well here.

It hasn't really taken off in the US - don't mistake critical acclaim for translating into large audiences. The figures are about 1 million an episode, which is miniscule by US standards.

lostexpectation

no irish station has played it either just bbc

DeepBlue

lostexpectation wrote: »

no irish station has played it either just bbc

S1 is starting next Monday on RTE2 @ 11.30pm.

BenjAii

Well if this was slow to take off that has certainly changed. Watched episode 7 series 2 last night, it's all really hotting up.

Spoilers ahead .....

Don Draper has finally come a cropper on his philandering, having Betty end the show throwing up in his precious new car was priceless. Salvatore and his unrequited love for Ken, awwhhh. And I think Joan Hollloway might just have met her match in that manipulative little minx that is Don's secretary.

Best episode so far & this series just gets better and better in my eyes.

ixoy

Agreed - last night's episode was the best so far. Jimmy was great in this - calling Don garbage to his face was brilliant and then poor Dan got some vomit over his car.
Let's not forget the romantic dinner either - Cosgrove looked a small bit uncomfortable being leered at..

BenjAii

ixoy wrote: »

Agreed - last night's episode was the best so far. Jimmy was great in this - calling Don garbage to his face was brilliant and then poor Dan got some vomit over his car.
Let's not forget the romantic dinner either - Cosgrove looked a small bit uncomfortable being leered at..

Although I can't help finding Jimmy a creep, he played Don brilliantly, totally f****** him over.

I love the way they do each episode thematically around the title, "The Golden Violin" as a motif and allusion was used paricularly brilliantly this week, partly why its such a strong episode.

Oh & poor Salvatore, that made me cringe ....

Amz

Latest episode was great. Really don't like the Jimmy Barrett character, but that's what they want, but he really landed one on Draper.

I thought they would do more with the flashback to Don as car salesman, but obviously that's for next week.

Betty throwing up at the end was great, you're half delighted as it's almost the perfect way to get at Don and half sorry as it's such a gross way to have your brand new car sullied.

BenjAii

Wow, just watched episode 11. How down the rabbit hole wierd was that ?
The way they all handled the Eastern European guy coming out, very funny.

Don Draper and his adoptive Californian family - strange, strange, strange, and hes back to being Dick Whitman.

chalkitdown1

Last nights episode was absolutely fantastic. Probably the best episode of the season for me, if not the best episode of the whole show. So many standout scenes. It pretty much guaranteed Jon Hamm another emmy for next year, too.

He's not leaving the show is he?

Mailman

BenjAii wrote: »

Wow, just watched episode 11. How down the rabbit hole wierd was that ?
The way they all handled the Eastern European guy coming out, very funny.

Don Draper and his adoptive Californian family - strange, strange, strange, and hes back to being Dick Whitman.

That episode left me with good memories of La Dolce Vita.
One thing is for certain, Mad Men is not like anything else on TV at the moment.

lostexpectation

i guess he was left cold by these people and he want to go back to his wife?

BenjAii

Thank god there is going to be a third series of this; a more brilliant, perfectly formed TV series, you could not find.

Loved the Peer Gynt references in ep12, wow, that and the continuing Frank O'Hara poetry refs (I notice next weeks episode is actually called 'Meditations in an emergency')

Poor Joan; thought she had won the game snagging Dr Perfect. And Peggy with her new bad habits, smoking & scotch - i see a series 3 story arc there ......

lostexpectation

ah finally so more back story good,

BenjAii

Was that just me or did the series end on slightly more of a whimper than a bang ? Though glad to see Pete Cambell doing two smart things, thats a change.

Betty's casual sex/fried cicken thing was funny though.

As was SNL's "Don Draper guide to picking up women"

lostexpectation

how could snl eviscerate the show like that, how dare they,spot on:)

just watch the final ep

spoilers galore it says so up top,

so i knew peggy had a child and it was petes and i knew there was this whole story line about him not wanting children but when I saw her actually sitting down to tell him, i was like OH No pete already has a kid. oh my god!

i actually thought she was going to come to terms with her child rather then tell pete, i thought would be the first thing you would do.


loved how the priest threatened her with hell, he really meant it.


fried chicken?

Lafortezza

I'm pretty disappointed about Series 2 so far, I thought S01 was very good and gave S02 alot of different plot lines to follow after the initial intros and early plots of S01.

In S02 so far they haven't really had 1 or 2 main stories to drive the whole show. They have skipped around between Don, Betty, Sterling, Joanie, Peggy etc etc, without developing any of them fully apart from Don's. And even that has been incredibly slow. It's like they have filler storylines like the gay Eastern European guy or the guy having a black girlfriend earlier in the series.
They introduce something that could be pretty interesting in the setting of 50's/60's Madison Avenue, then discard it and go back to Betty in her underwear moping in the kitchen.

I'll still watch it and I'll watch the first few EP's of Series 3 when it comes out, and while it's great TV it could be way better imo.

BenjAii

Yeah lost you missed that, after she gets in from casually f***** the guy in the toilet, she has a piece of fried chicken !

Lafor, while I think all the vividly drawn smaller characters are one of its strengths, I agree many of their storylines don't get the attention they deserve. Joan a case in point, she gets raped in the office by her fiance second from last episode & its not even mentioned in the last episode - frustrating.

Lafortezza

Yeah, there's so many really good characters but they don't develop strong storylines for them as well as I think they should have. All the strong personalities around the offices, and all we get is a token gay european guy, a brief interracial couple thing, and Salvatore and his in-the-closet thing. Same goes for Betty who has been mouldering in her house without Don now for maybe 4 or 5 episodes?
So many missed opportunities. I really really hope S03 is better.

BenjAii

There is a report in The Guardian saying there is now a huge question mark over wether there will be any more Mad Men.

Matthew Weiner, the writer & producer behind the show may want more money than cable network AMC can give him.

You can certainly see it's Wiener that gives this show its touch of genius, don't think i could watch it if he wasn't on board; the article makes interesting reading on the disparity between the huge critical acclaim for the show & its tiny viewing numbers.