Mad Men

[LQ]

Finally, some concrete information about the future of the show: Mad Man has been renewed for at least two more seasons with season 5 set to start in March of 2012.

Damn, a whole year before another season.

I'm just happy that we'll get another season. Seasons! I may have been overly anxious but reading the back-and-forth between Weiner and AMC over the past couple of weeks led me to think that if it did come back on, it would be a drastically different show.

Anyway, with the return of Breaking Bad in the summer and The Walking Dead in autumn, at least we'll be entertained while we wait.

[mfunk9786]

What the? So the episodes on TV will be incomplete by two minutes? That seems like a particularly awful compromise - just edit the final cut of the show down by two more minutes, don't release a director's cut every week. Sounds like it'll be daunting.

[Tom Hagen]

Season 5 starts March 25. First ep will be directed by Jon Hamm.

[Andre Jurieu]

Season 5 starts March 25. First ep will be directed by Jon Hamm.

More details are surfacing. Looks like the Season 5 premiere episode will actually be 2 hours and directed by Jennifer Getzinger (who previously gained acclaim for "The Suitcase").

[Tom Hagen]

I thought "The Suitcase" was the second best episode the series has done, behind "Don Draper goes to California, walks into an Antonioni film" back in season 2. Great news!

[Professor Wagstaff]

I hadn't realized Frank Pierson was working as a consultant for the show and possibly writing. This was a terrific episode for him to be credited to and I hope he has more in him.

[Andre Jurieu]

...behind "Don Draper goes to California, walks into an Antonioni film" back in season 2.

OK, so I'm not the only person who thought that exact same thing and loved those episodes. Obviously, those California scenes immediately reminded me of Don's conversation with Bobbie about La Notte right before the car accicent (which served as a preamble to another great interaction between Don and Peggy).

I hadn't realized Frank Pierson was working as a consultant for the show and possibly writing. This was a terrific episode for him to be credited to and I hope he has more in him.

Also another solid directing effort from Slattery. So far, the episodes that he and Hamm have directed have been among the most humorous within the show's run.

Season 5 starts March 25. First ep will be directed by Jon Hamm.

Based on the last AV Club interview with Hamm, it sounds like he directed the first episode back from the hiatus for the entire crew, but then the actual Season 5 premiere was shot afterwards.

[Roger Ryan]

I don't know if anyone else caught this in last night's episode, but I have to think the off-hand remark that Cooper should negotiate with Jaguar because "he speaks British" is an in-joke reference to actor Robert Morse's difficulty in mastering a British accent for his lead role in THE LOVED ONE (1965). Fans of that cult favorite will know that Morse ended up post-synching every line of dialogue for his character because he couldn't maintain an acceptable accent on-set.

[TomReagan]

Whoa! Fat Betty

[Murdoch]

Last night's episode was a new high, among my favorites of the series.

SpoilerShow

Megan asking, "why don't you call your mother?" to Don and the reactions afterward was up there with Betty vomiting in the car after discovering Don's affair for oh-no-they-didn't moments.

[Andre Jurieu]

Last night's episode was a new high, among my favorites of the series.

Honestly, I was preparing myself for a bit of a let-down considering the previous episodes have been so good, but I'm fairly certain some of the scenes included in last night's episode will be among the most memorable within the entire series

[Matt]

I can't believe the incredible run this show is on right now. The last 4 episodes are among the best in the series, really nailing the vertiginous change happening in the middle of the 1960s. Case in point: The men's cologne company wants a hip, youthful ad with a loveable mop-top set to the Beatles, meaning the "Hard Day's Night" Beatles of 1964. Meanwhile, the world has already moved on to Revolver-era Beatles and is just months away from the flat-out psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper.

Each main character of the show is facing their own existential crisis except for Don (the king of the existential crisis), who is generally floating blissfully above it all (his harrowing glimpse down the elevator shaft notwithstanding). He's getting old and out of touch, though, quickly turning into "the Man." Even Roger is hipper than Don now. Given Don's persona non grata status among big businesses, I can see SCDP never being more than a small-time, staid agency (unless maybe Peggy is given more authority).

And how sadly ironic that Megan couldn't see that it was partly her acting the role of Mrs. Draper that made her so valuable to SCDP.

[Murdoch]

Yeah, this season has been my favorite of the series thus far and given that my past response to the show has mostly been ho-hum I was surprised by how much I love what the writers have come up with. I think it's largely because Megan is a genuinely likeable character and has pushed the rather intolerable Betty to the sidelines.

SpoilerShow

Pete's descent into Draper-like marital disillusionment has been the highpoint for me, as he dolefully wanders from one potential mistress to another, always falling short and becoming more bitter with the pursuit.

[Andre Jurieu]

Completely in agreement with Matt on this. The past few episodes have been quite masterful in conveying the inevitable change in the climate surrounding these characters, yet it's done so in a very organic manner. I've also found this to be one of the more hilarious seasons so far. I really loved the scene between Roger and Don (in Don's office) in this past week's episode.

Also, on a purely superficial level: first Annie Edison and now Rory Gilmore? Pete definitely has a type ... and I have to tip my cap to him.

[Murdoch]

I've also found this to be one of the more hilarious seasons so far.

SpoilerShow

"Pizza House!"

[Matt]

Over the holidays at the end of last year, I watched seasons 1-4 in quick succession. While 1-3 are necessary for understanding 4-5, I found I really didn't like the show. Season 4 turned that around, particularly with the introduction of genuine laughs to the show.

I agree with Murdoch that the focus on Megan and the absence of Betty in most of the recent episodes has been nothing but a plus. I see Betty and Henry are back next week, though, and we'll probably only see Megan in home scenes and dinner party scenes from now on, so, nuts to that. There's been a lot of death and portents of death this season, so fingers crossed that the Francises die in a fiery crash and the kids have to come live in Manhattan.

[warren oates]

No way, it's going to be

SpoilerShow

Pete by suicide, jumping or falling like the man in the opening credits

[Matt]

But that's what everybody thinks is going to happen which is exactly why it won't.

[Andre Jurieu]

But that's what everybody thinks is going to happen which is exactly why it won't.

Hopefully it's not Lane. It would also suck if it were Harry, considering he's such a great source of amusement.

Of all of the men around the office, seems like Roger and Ken appear poised to thrive in the next phase of 60s culture. Considering he's in charge of the TV-branch, Harry really should be in that category, but he's never all that secure.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Never all that secure indeed. I keep expecting Harry to screw up something next. He's looking like more of a doofus this season. That said, Sommers' acting between him and Pete and him and Roger in the scenes about trading offices were some of the funniest he's done.

[Murdoch]

SpoilerShow

Well that was an important episode. With both Peggy and Megan gone from the agency, and Don being disregarded for the vote on Joan, Don's going to have an even rougher time dragging himself to work and I think this season is going to end with him questioning his relationship with the firm.

[TomReagan]

I had the same exact response to The Other Woman that I did after first viewing The Suitcase.

That this series can, after nearly five seasons, continue to set such high water marks simply beggars belief.

[LQ]

That this series can, after nearly five seasons, continue to set such high water marks simply beggars belief.

I've sat stunned in my seat after each knockout episode this season has offered, but The Other Woman really, really took the cake. A series-defining 40-odd minutes.

SpoilerShow

Joan's plotline in this episode was among the most heartbreaking and downright nasty this show has seen; it was clear that her "you couldn't afford it" was a send-off and not the bargaining bluff Pete took it to be, but when she heard that all (or what she took to be all) of the partners had discussed whoring her out and agreed to offer her 50,000, she realized that these men would perceive her as sexual means to an end whether she went through with it or not. And that devastating knowledge eventually calcified into a dark, cynical pragmatism that led her to the choice she made. Hendricks' acting here, especially the command she has over every last muscle fiber in her face, was a wrenching revelation to watch.

Thank god it ended on a genuine note of happiness, otherwise I'd still be gasping from the multiple suckerpunches the episode doled out. Although I don't think I'm prepared for a Peggy-less SCDP, I can't not be happy that she's leaving, for the right reasons.

[starmanof51]

I had the same exact response to The Other Woman that I did after first viewing The Suitcase.

That this series can, after nearly five seasons, continue to set such high water marks simply beggars belief.

I know, and I don't disagree, but some of the behavior was so extreme I'm still not sure I actually believe these people would have done all these things that were written for them to do this week. I either love it or it's shark-jumpy, I think I'm hanging onto the love side.

SpoilerShow

Putting possible suspension of disbelief issues aside, the number of ways they were able to play with the varieties of "whoring out" ("turn around for us") was both impressive and a devastating catalog of misogyny. Pete with Trudy, Don with Megan, Ginsberg's probably lovestruck annoyance with Megan, Don with Peggy, probably on and on - the annoyance they all have at the very idea of women having agency in their own lives, all wrapped up in Ginsberg's Jag tagline intended to repudiate it completely - if only these things would just do what we want! So much to chew on.

Great stuff too for all Pete-haters like me, whose depravity and dissembling has no obvious limits. He may well kill someone before this is all over (the rifle is already out, gotta do something with it some time).

My wife has long held that at some point in the future, maybe distant future, Big Red would end up owning the whole thing, without any idea how exactly that would happen. Maybe she's right after all.

[mfunk9786]

Big Red

What a nickname!