Mad Men Season 5 Epi 6 Far Away Places

This feels like the break up episode. Some of the relationships are at the beginning of break ups and some of them the end. Perhaps the partners in the relationships are each in a far away place from the other.

Peggy & Abe: Peggy in general can't make anyone happy with the possible exception of strangers in movie theatres. Abe wants her to be a better girl friend, less focused on work. Truly I think they're too different. He wants to go to The Naked Prey and she ends up at Born Free. Seriously from different planets.
Heinz wants her to be, a man, basically. When the guys says he's letting her get away with what she's said because he has a daughter. He basically called her a child to be tolerated. She really is getting it from every where.

Ginsberg & reality: Last week I called the concentration camp connection, but even I'm not good(obsessed) enough to catch the Mars connection. I'm not entirely sure he was kidding about being from Mars. What did he mean by the communication, to "stay where you are"? I was a bit lost on all that. I would definitely understand if he had a hard time finding people with common early experiences.

Don & Roger: After tonights episode I feel like I have to go back and watch their entire relationship. Is it me, or are they one anothers yin and yang. Rogers miserable, Don is elated. Then Roger gets his freedom and is about to be, what I hope, is very very happy with Joan and their baby and Don's life goes out the window.
Loved the reference to the twins and the hospital. Ah the good old days.

Roger & Jane: The moment we have been crossing our fingers has finally come. Roger and Jane are getting a divorce. It might have been more fun to watch them if they had been on acid from the beginning. Course that Derby Day party was pretty trippy. I love that the world burst into song for Roger when he open a bottle of vodka on acid. Also he sees Don as the guide for his trip. And Cooper is on the $5 bill. Tie in with Lincoln or not, you decide. Finally the black Sox series game was hysterical.
Anyway, I'm hoping to see Roger on acid more, and from the scene from next week I think that is pretty likely.

Don & Megan: These two seem destined for disaster. Don doesn't respect Megan's place at work. He drags her to Howard Johnson and tells the team they don't need HIM. When it is Megan who has been Peggy's junior on the campaign. Unless they can get this sorted, I don't think it will end well. We see them again on that white carpet that is also doomed to destruction, with Megan saying that every fight diminishes their love.
Then we see the car ride back from Disneyland. Where Don is Whistling I Want To Hold Your Hand, by The Beatles. Megan said I thought you hated that and Don says it stuck in my head. You can see where she might have thought he would like her younger generation things more than he has turned out too.

This and That:

The drugs are really popping up everywhere. A few weeks ago with Sally. This week Peggy gets stoned in a theatre and Roger takes LSD.

Don doesn't buy Gene a gift.

Frank Lloyd Rice. I love Roger. Just saying it wrong to annoy snooty people.

Mad Men Tea Leaves s5 e3

Before we get into tonights episode, let's take a moment to just appreciate that it was Sunday night and we get to watch Mad Men. Who knows how long we will have to wait for the next season so let's enjoy it thoroughly. Ok now for the show.

It was great to see Betty, and so much of her. I was terrified they were going to kill her off with cancer, but it looks like she is just stuffing herself and her feelings for Don. She needs to hear Don tell her it was all going to be ok and when he called her birdy, you could see her just soak it up like water in the desert.I thought Henry's head was going to explode when Don called to see if Betty was ok. Henry obviously knows Betty is still in love with Don. Sorry Henry, that's a risk you run when you're picking up pregnant ladies.

In the end Betty takes the call telling her she's ok in the lonely cavernous hall. Even with Henry right there she is alone. I was hoping Betty would see this brush with death as a chance at a new life. Though when she starts eating Sally's ice cream I think she may just go back to business as usual. I predict her getting bigger and bigger this season, and then hopefully having some kind clarity and getting help mentally and physically.

Pete and Roger are continuing their war of words. Looks like Roger is getting pretty tired of it. This last round with Mohawk Airlines may be the nail in the coffin. Roger is tired of trying to keep up with all the kids. I wonder if his wife is one of them?? Roger is waiting for things to get back to normal, he doesn't realize this is normal now. He even says he's given up on actual life and death when Don talks to him about Betty being ill and how it will affect the kids.

Don and Harry's Rolling Stones excursion is a total flop. It brought to mind Don's trip with Sal, which also went up in flames. Both literally and figuritively. Don and Harry end up with Harry pounding 20 of something in a post high munchy session and Harry having accidently signed The Trade Winds instead of The Stones. Heinz wants the youth market and SCDP doesn't understand who that is at all.

Finally! Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price is integrated. We saw last week that a African American secretary was going to be hired but now a Jewish copy writer too. Fun/racist jokes about Don's new secretary's name being Dawn. Of course Roger with his "Always darkest before the Dawn." Harry and his general idiocy. Hopefully she will get a storyline. The new copywriter Micheal Ginsberg(does Scott Baio know he's been cloned?) seems a bit unbalanced but should be fun to watch. They already showed us his home life with his father, I'm guessing we'll see more there soon.

I don't know what to make of the closing credit song from Sound of Music, I am sixteen going on seventeen. Maybe just that Betty is still a child who needs someone to lead her, and that someone has to be Don.


Here is a Trade Winds song just for good measure. Coincidently they changed their name several times too.



As another side note. Translation of Megan's phone call with her parents, She said "yes it's hot. I'm drinking a lot of water. I miss you too." I'm not great with tenses so this might have been all in future tense and in regard to their trip to Fire Island. Anyway, I'm sure the exchange with her parents will come up later, maybe just that they're a bit over protective of her. Don doesn't have a great track record with in laws. He better watch it.

Mad Men Season 5 Premiere

Today marks the last Sunday till Mad Men returns to AMC. That's right kids Next Sunday the long wait will come to an end. I've just finished rewatching season 4 and I have some Mad Men Season 5 predictions.

At the end of season 4 I was disappointed that Don had thrown over Faye for Megan, but after rewatching it again I saw something new. Don is tired of perfection and the pursuit of it. Where Betty wants the children to behave all the time, Megan says don't cry over a spilled milk shake. She even has unusual teeth and is foreign (OK French Canadian). Megan allows Don to just be, it's true that she won't challenge him like Faye. But maybe now that he is entering mid life he is ready to relax, if not face up to reclaiming his former identity.

I'm guessing that we will finally get to find out about where Joan came from this year. I am dying to find out what the medical connection is for her. Christina confirmed that Joan's coughing in the John Deere foot amputation screen was in the script and that she was curios too why she was coughing and no one else was. Fingers crossed for that reveal. Now Joan's baby and marriage... I'm thinking Joan's baby will be born when we rejoin the show. I'm hoping her "lovely" husband will have been killed in Vietnam, but unfortunately I think that would be too neat. But I still hold out hope he'll get it eventually, hopefully killed by his own troops.

I would love to see Betty getting divorced and start out on a voyage of self discovery. But I doubt that will happen. She will probably just continue on her crabby, ostrich with her head in the sand way. I could definitely see her having a baby with Henry. Which would fit conveniently with January's real life pregnancy during the break.

I'm hoping we will find Peggy and Abe in one another's arms, probably living in sin and loving it. Pete is most likely continuing to climb the corporate ladder selling off pieces of his soul along the way.

Just one week till we find out how right or wrong I am. Until then you could join the #MomsLAChat Wed. the 21st at 10am PST for a fun Mad Men twitter party with great prizes from Bev Mo, Queen of Hearts and The Dead Celebrity Cookbook author Frank DeCaro. RSVP to win

Mad Men Posters Through Time

Here's a look back through the 5 seasons of posters for Mad Men on AMC.

In the beginning he was just a silohette with a cigarette.
Then a man lost in a crowd, who doesn't know which way to go.
Next a man about to willingly drowned in his own life.
Last season a man alone, with just a phone and perhap no one to call.
We can only guess what this season's poster will mean....A man in free fall through nothing?

March 25th we'll find out in the 2 hour fifth season premiere.

A Little Mad Men Until Season 5

The other night I got a Mad Men Season 5 Amuse Bouche. That's right the LA Times' Envelope series hosted a screening of Beautiful Girls from Mad Men Season 4 and a Q&A with series creator Matt Weiner, and cast member Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, and Kiernan Shipka.
It was amazing and I even got to ask a question. What you ask: I asked if we would get to learn more about Joan in the coming season. To be truthful with the eyes of Matt Weiner and company on me I could barely string together a sentence, much less understand their answer. But here's what I think happened.

I asked the question and Matt Weiner said "why do you have to know?" at which point I started babbling about all the medical stuff and coughing, to which he said "you mean with the lawn mower" and then I said "yeah and the ant farm". Which was the point I realized knowing every time a character has coughed on a show was a little weird. So I said so. Then Christina jumped in to say that the coughing was in the script and she wondered why she was coughing and no one else was. I think it was at that point that I blacked out. I do remeber John Hamm looking at me like he was William Shattner and I had just approached him on a city street dressed as a Clingon.

What I took from this is that there is something to my medical theories about Joan but Matt Weiner would prefer to let it unfold in his own time. So, I'll try to control myself going forward. The last thing I want to do is anger the god of my Mad Men world. So please Mr. Weiner take your time, I will be here waiting when you are ready to show it. (really there is no saracasm in that statement, no really)

Here's some video of God talking about season 5.



I loaded a few more videos to my Elise's Ramblings Youtube Channel

Mad Men Season 5 Late Start

Looks like Mad Men won't be back until 2012, and possibly without Matt Weiner, which would be no Mad Men at all. All the likely suspects are reporting that AMC has said they will go forward with Season 5 with or without Weiner, but with the late start not until early 2012.

Apparently what's holding up the works is AMC's wish to cut the show length so they can add commercials, and cut two actors to cut the budget. As much as I hate the idea of no Mad Men, I see why Matt Weiner won't agree.

Everyone cross your fingers that they come to agreement soon. Otherwise we may be greeted with a show that is unrecognizable. In the wrong hands our Mad Men would go from brilliant to sappy soap opera in nothing flat.

Someone might want to remind AMC of the old saying "You leave the party with the guy that brought you." Or something like that, anyway the essence is Mad Men brought AMC to the fore and they shouldn't ditch them for a bunch of zombies.

Mad Men Season 5 Premiere

Mad Men season 5 which I had assumed would be arriving sometime in August, I now hear hasn't exactly been renewed. Apparently there are some contractual negotiations going on with AMC. I'm sure the cast and Weiner are due whatever they ask for, but I'm going to freak out if it delays the start of the 5th season. I'll keep you posted on any developments.
In the mean time Season 4 of Mad Men will be released on March 29th. I gotta say I find the cover art extremely derivative on Hitchcock's Vertigo,but regardless, I can't wait to get my hands on it.
That's it in Mad Men News!