Mad Men - season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Jason_V]

Why not? I already stated everything but the NY scenes was boring to me. And I do think making the audience squirm was the intended effect. I mean, if you're not even slightly taken aback by the terms being used in an office setting, then there is something wrong. What I don't find fault in is Mad Men being authentic to the time period and not being PC. It's the same thing that happens with the girls or the minorities in the show.

 

[Steve Y]

But that's why I love this show. It's complex. You have to deal with the emotions of caring about characters who may say or do despicable things. In fact, the show has been playing that game since the end of the first episode. It makes me uncomfortable, but it also makes me think. This is how real people are. (And it's true to the era!)

 

[Henry Gale]

This is how my work and personal life are now.

 

[Gwon Chang]

Jon Hamm on SNL next week. Should be fun!

 

[John_Lee]

Anyone else notice 'Joy's theme' was an easy listening version of Misirlou, the titular 'Surf Music' opening song from Pulp Fiction?

 

[Cal S]

The Million Dollar Movie was a nice John Hamm film nod / promotion.

 

[JediFonger]

as i suspected the sterling/cooper company was an easy pass. did anyone notice cooper's resigned show of defeat as everyone left him alone in the room? this is such an incredibly deep show!!! =D. u can watch this several times and still get a lot out of it =P unlike the sopranos later seasons .

i luv how the dialogues are always pregnant with meaning and insights into the characters, caricatures and settings of the time and place of the era.

this last episode that aired was incredible, it truly unraveled a huge yarn of who don drapper/dick whitman is =D.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I find it interesting how the world was on the brink with the Cuban missile crisis, and the amount of information available to the common man was basically bits of TV reports and newspapers. With the end of the world at the forefront of everyone's minds, it provided a catalyst to bring forth the light on a life given away, and a life just waiting for to be embraced.

Anyone else cringe when Betty was not only smoking, but drinking after she found out she was pregnant? How times change. Her evening the infidelity scoreboard is perfectly Betty, that's her juvenile coping mechanism (and note, she only did it after Don finally confirmed it, though he didn't quite let on to the depths of his philandering ways).

Peggy's revelation to Pete was literally a bombshell to his world. Nice parallel to the world going to hell in a hand basket that weekend of the crisis in Cuba. Very delicate scene that played out strong in its restraint.

Duck's reaction to the news of Don's contract status was great. Duck getting blindsided was a nice bonus from that scene, plus the new owners definitely are aware of Duck's weakness when it comes to alcohol.

 

[mattCR]

You have the strong feeling after Don left that the London buyres, who said they were still interested in the merger, knew that they had to switch horses. Whether they thought Duck's plan was right or wrong, they knew that if Don left, he'd end up taking a big swath of accounts with him, or they'd leave and go elsewhere - making Sterling Cooper worthless.

So, who's president after that meeting? It isn't Duck. And Duck knew it. Don's bombshell basically said: either I'm President, or I walk, and if I walk, the whole thing doesn't work.

Duck just found himself back where he was.. and it was interesting that it was basically Pete Campbell who gave Don the time to prepare and think about how he'd respond.

But nothing could have helped his case better then Duck going off the handle.

 

[buttmunker]

Very convenient how there was a nice couch in the back of that bar. She standing there waiting for the ladies room, they go into the nearest open door (which I expected to be a broom-closet or the men's room), and find themselves in something resembling Don Draper's office. Niiice.

I laughed how Pete said "you're right" to Trudy when Trudy said, "if you loved me, you'd come with me."

I wonder what year we'll be in when the show starts again at Season Three.
---didn't it jump 2 years between Season 1 & Season 2 (1960 to 1962?) Will Kennedy already be dead at the start of the new season? Will Pete get inducted to go to Vietnam?

And what was the deal with Pete holding his rifle at the end?

 

[buttmunker]

...and riding the pony, after the doctor told her not to. Yikes!

 

[Albert_M]

Pete’s world was crushed. It is clearer than ever in this episode that he doesn’t love his wife and loves peggy. He also uses her advice about telling the truth to tell her that. After all it worked when he spoke the truth earlier, but he was rejected in an extreme way this time. Peggy states that she could have essentially forced Pete to be with her and she still rejected it. Pete was obviously devastated. Ironically he did one of the few nice things office-wise by giving Don a heads up because at the end of the day, he respects Don and wants Don’s approval desperately. The seen with the gun is obviously very troubling to say the least.

Don’s wife seems to have really gone over the edge and her behavior gets to be more extreme.

The question is, will the return to the show in early 1963? Will Kennedy still be alive? Will it be before Nov 63? Or maybe early ’64 and time elapses a little more significantly and the office moves as the Beatles land in NYC…..

I really think that as good as season one was this was a whole level better.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I want them to show the characters' reactions to Kennedy's assassination, so hoping for a return before that time frame next season.

Also hoping Matthew Weiner is back on board next season as well.

 

[buttmunker]

Me, too.

I got a chuckle out of Don watching Kennedy's address about the Cuban Missle Crisis on TV in his "expensive hotel," the TV was hopeless, with the picture going up and down at times. Cheap piece of junk!

 

[Marty M]

I hope they will start sometime in 1963 so the show will cover the Kennedy assassination, as well. Pete won't have to worry about getting drafted. In the early 60s married men were exempt from being drafted.

I had noticed the rifle was in the corner of his office when Peggy came in to have a drink with him. After the conversation with Peggy I was afraid he was going to use the rifle on himself.

 

[buttmunker]

I loved how Peggy "dressed down" Pete. What were her exact words, in parting? And hey, she put her hand on his shoulder before leaving...which would indicate that she still cared (at least a little). It would be up to Pete to decide if he wants to become a better man in Peggy's eyes, to win her over. After their affair, Pete didn't know how he wanted to be with her - for a while, he was cruel to her in public.

 

[JediFonger]

was that the season finale? =D i totally luv this series!!! it's so awesome. definitely all engines on full tilt.

 

[Robert Floto]

Isn't the rifle always there? It's the one he exchanged the "Chip 'n' Dip" for that he got for a wedding gift. The one his wife threw a fit over when he brought it home, and he later took back to the office.

I thought his sitting there with the rifle in hand at the end of the episode was him being prepared to defend the himself from the looters his wife was concerned about back at their apartment...

 

[TravisR]

I could be wrong but I thought he was in his apartment (not at his in-laws' house) prepared for looters.

 

[JediFonger]

i like how the feeling of uncertainty then is similar (obviously not nuclear now) to our financial crisis right now and prez. election. just that feeling of uncertainty is still there and what the priest said about it's uncertain all the time =).

PS was that season finale? are there more next week?