MAD MEN -- Season FIVE Official Thread....

My parents were World War II/Mad Men "bosses" Generation. My mother, born 1924, didn't "get" the Beatles when they first broke in the U.S., but she grew to like them from my playing their records over and over when I was a teenager in the late 1970s. My father, born 1917, never expressed strong feelings about them, although he did like "Eleanor Rigby."

 

My folks were huge Big Band fans, so I heard a lot of that growing up -- but my younger sister and I eventually took over the stereo system and played that newfangled British Invasion stuff.

Supposedly, Berry Gordy's office stereo was a $39.95 Sears Silvertone mono record player (as opposed to a turntable), and was used to preview new mixes and songs every week at Motown. Berry refused to listen to tape -- he wanted to hear something closer to the vinyl his customers would eventually buy. And he refused to listen to big speakers, because he knew a cheap stereo was closer to what real-world people owned. They talked about this quite a bit in the 1999 Motown 40 TV special.

Don Draper doesn't seem to be much of a music fan. More booze, cigarettes, and screwing (not that there's anything wrong with that).

 

I sure hope he can learn to embrace all four.

 

I think he embrace that Jag.

 

My dad liked Creedence. He did not like 'Free Form Guitar" on the first Chicago album.

Don might like Creedence for, like, a beer campaign. Don would not like Free Form Guitar.

 

Wait until he has his first service nightmare.

 

I liked when Pete was trying to get some praise for getting Jag and Cooper said, "They're lemons."

Chad

 

And Don said that an agency is defined by when they get their first car, right?

 

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/201...-for-don-drapers-waning-mojo/?ref=automobiles

 

He said that later. A great, motivating line for the agency.

 

But still, there's the possibility of the perception that they're defined by a lemon.

 

I loved that speech, he used the same serious tone he uses on the new Mercedes Benz commercials he does the voice overs for.

 

I agree with those who do NOT think that the series will conclude with one of the characters falling out a window or down an elevator shaft--I think the creators would shy away from doing something so literal and predictable. The elevator shaft represented an internal "void" more than a physical one. I don't, however, think that Don is necessarily done "falling." I agree with those who see his marriage to Megan as a step in the right direction for him--he doesn't want the stay-at-home housewife, but a more equal and independent partner. However, so far he has tended to want the independence on his own terms, which isn't really independence--hence the scene with the orange sherbet among others.

What seemed to terrify Don the most was the sight of Megan cooking barefoot at home--the one thing he DOESN'T want is to see her turn into Betty. I think Megan seems unlikely to fall into that role, however.

My prediction is that the show will end with him leaving advertising--for what, I'm not sure. But advertising is all about other peoples' dreams, and I think the show's central theme is Don's search for his own authentic core. In the past, he has lived the original Don Draper's life in California, then Betty's dream in the suburbs, and now inhabits an apartment that was decorated by Megan and very much represents her aspirations. In the end, I think he will need to find his own aspirations, and will probably go back to his name of Dick Whitman.

 

Lol! Maybe he'll next seek out advice from a guy named Capote and then with a clap of thunder collapse into a mound of dust!

 

God, I hope not! I'm looking forward to somebody plummeting down the shaft. I can think of several people who deserve it.

(I've been inside that actual series elevator several times, at LA Center Studios, and although it's very slow, it's never jammed or opened up without a car there.)

 

If the elevator shaft thing happens, it'll be this season.

And if it does, surely they won't re-use the falling/jumping/defenestration thing for the series finale.

 

Wow. They got the Jaguar. At a cost. I was not expecting the whole Herb/Pete/Joan plotline. Nor that it would be what it would become.

Don and Megan continue to learn about each other. And stay close.

Don kisses Peggy's hand!

What an episode. Only two more to the season.

 

Tonights episode: BEST episode ever of this series.

Don actually saying (in so many words) "Goodbye Peg, dont let the door hit ya on the way out" was priceless. Loved it!!

 

Can't say I blame her. Don's been on the rag to varying degrees pretty much the entire season.

 

Nice tie in between the Jag ad tag (which I really didn't like) and the sponsor Stella Artois's.

 

Great one tonight!

Pat

 

Now I wonder...have we seen the last of Peggy? One would think so. They cant devote much time, if any at all to her, now that she works elsewhere.

How much trouble will Lane get into for embezzling the 12 grand or whatever it was?

 

The first scene of the entire series was her first day at the job, I've always kind of taken a Peggy-centric view of the show, they can't just write her off. She left once before and Don had to beg her to come back to the new firm.

 

I don't think, or hope, we have seen the last of Peggy. Since she has been part of the series since the beginning, I think she will continue to be part of the series until its end.