Mad Men Podcast - The Forecast - Boozy with a chance of inappropriate relationship? #MadMen #MMcast #TV

Mad Men Betty and Glen

Mad Men The Forecast was a great episode with so much character development and a real feeling of moving towards a clear ending. Listen to Jeremiah and I break it all down on one of the last episodes of THE MAD MEN PODCAST...

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 10 A Tale Of Two Cities

Tonight's episode, A Tale Of Two Cities, is representative of so many relationship on this show as well as Don and Roger's trip to LA and New York. LA and New York may be the least divergent of these. The actual story of A Tale Of Two Cities is about life before and after a revolution, with fits into 1960's America perfectly.

Seeing Don and Megan cuddling and talking about Don's trip to LA. They're being kind of sweet to one another but they're saying really mean things. She says she made the worst mistake of her life when they got together on the trip to LA with the kids. Then when she tells him to stay away from actresses, he says he hates actresses. Are they fighting??? You really see how divided they are as people while they watch both the democratic convention and the riots that followed. Their experience of both are incredible different.

The scenes between Peggy and Joan were fascinating. These are two women who are both on career paths with no way beaten for them. As much as they struggle with one another's methods they also support one another in their own way. They have so much in common as working women, even more than they know if you include the children they both have by coworkers, that they pretend didn't happen. Still Peggy has gotten a lot of help from men along the way, while Joan hasn't. She feels she has to make her own way and if that means cutting Pete out, so be it.

SCDP and CGC are one but really they are still two separate entities.  Cutler is definitely over SCDP partners and with the odd decision to change their name too Sterling, Cooper and Partners, I think he's convinced Chaough to stage a coup. Why would they cut their names out that way, willingly? I think they're setting them up in a false sense of security so they can get away with something else. 

Don and Roger's trip to LA. I'm giving Roger a pass for basically calling LA a primitive land with hill billy natives. LA and NY are represented as really different worlds. Don and Roger walk around in their buttoned up suits, while everyone around them in LA is in Nehru jackets. When Roger runs into Danny at a party he tries to belittle (pardon the pun) him, needling that once would have worked ends with Roger getting socked in the gut by now Daniel J Segal. The world has changed.

Finally there is always the duality that is Don/Dick. As soon as he took a hit of the hash pipe, I thought we were in for some flash backs, but we got an insane and almost deadly hallucination. It starts with Megan turning up saying he is free to be with other women, because we all share in LA, which by the way is where she lives. I don't know if that means he feels he left the real Megan (the one he wanted to be married to) in LA, or if she feels as though she lives on the opposite coast from him. Either way it doesn't bode well for their relationship. Suddenly, Megan morphs into Dinkins, the solder he stood up for in Hawaii. Dinkins' is missing an arm and tells us that his wife thinks he's MIA but really he's dead. Don asks when he'll get his arm back, which leads to the remark "Dying doesn't make you whole, you should see what you look like." 

We cut back to reality here and Roger has pulled Don from the pool. The last lines we hear before the Megan hallucination is Don saying he's thirsty and the woman with him saying "there's a pool full of water out there". The strange thing is when Don is looking at his body floating in the pool he is wearing white pants, but when he's pulled out they are black. Might be some good old white death imagery, or something else. Roger is wearing white pants. Does he want to kill the Roger in him and move out to LA with imaginary Megan who told him she was having his baby and they had a second chance?

This and That:

Roger, Don and Harry at the carnation meeting being served chocolate milk.

Ginsberg blowing up at Cutler, and then Cutler calling him on the hypocrisy of his politics and cashing his checks from Dow and Chevy.

Avon doesn't know whether to be groovier or nostalgic. Seems like there is a lot of that going around.

In the final scene Pete smokes the joint Stan was smoking in the art room. Was I the only one that remembered Pete can't smoke? He's tried before and has huge coughing fits...

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Mad Men Season 5 epi 10 Christmas Waltz

So tonight's episode opened with Lane getting the bad news that he owes the English $8000 in taxes. I'm a bit confused how he let this happen??? But there it is. Now Lane is up to his eyeballs in lies. He's embezzled from SCDP, lied to his wife, committed forgery and basically made a mess of things. I hope he can make it all right before it blow up in his face. Lane doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would fair well in prison.

So happy to see Kinsey back. He's a disaster and still stabbing in the dark trying to find his place in the world. The Hari Krishna stuff was interesting. Funny that there was a time people needed a cheat sheet for the lyrics to their song. I love that Harry has some kind of allegiance to Paul, and even though he'll "have sex" with his girlfriend, he really wants to help him. I don't know what will happen to Paul out in LA, hopefully he'll steer clear of all the cults, especially Manson.

I'm hopefully that Joan has turned the corner. She started the episode in her sad brown dress telling Roger to take a hike and then screaming at the truly inept receptionist. But after a night out with Don she returns to the office in a leafy green dress of rebirth. Would'nt you just love to see Don throw Megan over for Joan...I know it will never happen but they could rule the world together. Love Don's flowers from Ali Khan.

Finally, dear sweet Roger. I would have loved to have seen the scenes of him celebrating Pearl Harbor Day with his fellow WWII vets. I think he really feels something for Kevin and Joan. I don't think Joan wants him back, but maybe now that she is healing she'll reconsider. I hope so.

Mad Men Episode 10 Season 4

Mad Men episode 10, Hands and Knees was all about the men. Last week we saw the pressures of being a woman in 1965. Choosing between family and work, taking care of just about every soul that crosses your path, and doing it all in heals and a girdle.
This week we see the strain on the men, which for Don and Lane brings them to their hands and knees. Poor Lane is still his father's whipping boy. He's been having such a good time with his freedom in New York, but one good smack over the head with daddy's cane and he's headed back to London to get his family back together.
Roger's desperation to get new clients, after Lucky Strike gave him notice. The upside on this news is that we might get Sal back, if Lee is no longer a client. I don't know what to say about Joan's pregnancy. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure she went through with the abortion. Roger was pretty clear he wanted no part of the baby, but may be open to a relationship with Joan.
Of course Don, Is still running from who he really is. I didn't think we'd revisit his identity issues now that it had been settled with Betty. I think Faye will keep after him to resolve it, which may be what sends her out of his life, or what binds them together. Though the way he was ogling his secretary at the end of the episode makes me think Faye's days could be numbered.
Finally, Pete is all kinds of over his partners. If it weren't for Trudy and his baby he would be out of there. But as it is he knows he needs Don to keep the agency afloat and is willing to do whatever necessary to stop him from running away, even if it means eating a huge piece of undeserved humble pie. I can't wait to see how Pete unloads on Roger when he finds out Lucky Strike is gone.

In other news, great to see Betty sticking up for Don, or maybe just for herself. Whatever the reason she saved Don's Bacon. Loved how she told Henry about the agent coming, because she didn't want any secrets, but omitted the part where she lied to them. Opps.

Loved the orchestration of The Beatles song at the end. I don't know all the lyrics but the chorus is "listen ohh ahh ohh Do you want to know a secret, ooh aah ooh, do you promise not to tell, ahh ahhahh" You could see where they thought it was a good match.


Here's the entire song.


I checked the scene from next week and looks like we'll be getting more Abe. Yeah!