<p>Very disturbing episode of MM
Speck murders
Seconal for a child
Don in the buff strangling a lover
Thought for a moment creepy Glen(Matt Weiner’s real life son) would pop up</p>
<p>It was creepy. I can’t wait to find out what Betty and Henry do about Grandma. She’s downright scary. Jon Hamm doesn’t often seem to have much range as an actor (or maybe I just see Don Draper whenever the poor guy plays another role). But the fever-dream scene showed a different side of both Jon and Don.</p>
<p>Grandma’s a pill pusher - told Betty to ask for diet pills than gave Sally a sleeping pill. I wonder how else she’ll fit into the show. </p>
<p>Kiernan Shipka is doing lovely as Sally. She is always wonderful and I am glad the writers are giving her some strong material. If you ever read and interview or hear he speak to reporters she is just brilliant. I can’t believe she is already 12.</p>
<p>I agree…very disturbing episode but much more interesting than the last two. I don’t get the dream sequence thing. Was that Don trying to subconsciously fight his urge to cheat?</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see where the series goes from here.</p>
<p>I’ve read at least 4 recaps/reviews/analyzations of last night’s episode and everyone has seem to come to the agreement that this fever-dream thing he had was the personification of the amount of guilt he’s kept inside him for all the time he has cheated. I feel like him killing her was the writers maybe using it as a symbol he won’t cheat again but I doubt it. The encounter in the elevator defiantly happened, her coming to his apartment is sort of speculated as part of his dream still, and then him killing her was defiantly his dream.</p>
<p>Will Don cheat again? My bet is probably. How long until it happens? Who knows. I am worried about him at this point. I think this whole ‘I am 40’ thing might be a catalyst towards some worse things. But Mad Men is going for at least another two seasons so he isn’t dying yet. </p>
<p>Mad Men (well mainly creator Matthew Weiner) is one of the most secretive shows. They don’t release screeners to many TV critics like HBO or other networks do. The promos are so ambiguous that it just confuses you more. I can’t decide if I like this feeling of not knowing anything that is going to happen.</p>
<p>I was creeped out that Sally was “sleeping” under the sofa with Grandma still sitting there. I can see this as the start of Sally and pills, drugs…</p>
<p>How did Joan’s husband not realize the fact that the baby could not be his? </p>
<p>What did I miss?</p>
<p>All in all, not up to previous seasons standards so far.</p>
<p>Lots of babies back in the day were “premature”. Coming earlier then expected…hmmmmm</p>
<p>This is the first season that I have watched Mad Men as it aired. Last summer DD and I watched the previous seasons on Netflix. I really think not having commercials makes a huge difference. The time that elapses breaks up the impact of the scenes. </p>
<p>Count me in as someone who was thrilled that Joanie booted her abusive husband. </p>
<p>What I find fascinating about Don turning 40 is that it represents such a divide in generations at that time. Because of changes in music, society, etc., he will become “old” very quickly and his young wife may make him feel older, rather than younger. She is fun & hip and he is rapidly becoming stodgy. The new hire (forget his name) is a similar contrast - he may be the new genius - threatening Don on another front.</p>
<p>Don kills an aggressive woman in a feverish dream, Sally(worried about what Mystery Date infers?) hides under the couch, Grandma sleeps with a knife, Joan kicks power mad violent husband to the curb, and in a move of solidarity Peggy(“we girls need to stick together”) invites the stranded African American secretary to spend the night. Looks like Richard Speck and the student nurse murders are giving feminism a little kick start. And so it begins ladies.</p>
<p>I was a little creeped out, but it was brilliant.</p>
<p>One other moment that really struck a chord with me was when Peggy glanced momentarily at her purse on the coffee table. Despite her willingness to invite a fellow “sister” to stay at her place, Peggy had a moment of doubt. She had $400 in her purse and here was this black woman on her couch. I was both ashamed and embarrassed. A great scene.</p>
<p>And Sallys grandma pushing seconal was priceless. It doesn’t particularly precipitate Sallys personal future drug usage as much as the grounds for the her upcoming generetions drug culture . I can remember diet pills and sleeping pills being a BIG part of upper middle class home life. Like the Rolling Stones sang in 1966:</p>
<p>MOTHERS LITTLE HELPER</p>
<p>What a drag it is getting old
Kids are different today,"
I hear ev’ry mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she’s not really ill
There’s a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day
“Things are different today,”
I hear ev’ry mother say
Cooking fresh food for a husband’s just a drag
So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak
And goes running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper
And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day
Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old
“Men just aren’t the same today”
I hear ev’ry mother say
They just don’t appreciate that you get tired
They’re so hard to satisfy, You can tranquilize your mind
So go running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper
And four help you through the night, help to minimize your plight
Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old
“Life’s just much too hard today,”
I hear ev’ry mother say
The pusuit of happiness just seems a bore
And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper
They just helped you on your way, through your busy dying day</p>
<p>Yes, Don seems very very old, suddenly…
What about Roger’s line the episode before last, “When is everything going to go back to normal?”
Any thought about Don’s horrific cold? I was wondering if HE will be diagnosed with lung cancer (double irony, given ad campaigns for ciggies, and that his ex just escaped cancer…)
It actually did seem like TB.</p>
<p>I think it just was a summer head cold. We’ve already had a medical scare with Betty and we are only 4 episodes into the season. </p>
<p>Peggy inviting Dawn back to her apartment was an interesting dynamic. Even though Peggy calls herself progressive she was still concerned leaving her purse out. It just shows that she still does have some prejudice inside her.</p>
<p>So is Roger going to just throw cash at people the rest of the season for them to get work done? I will say that the scene between Peggy and Roger was brilliant but him and Pete’s relationship is not helping anything right now.</p>
<p>So happy that there’s a MM thread!</p>
<p>Back in the sixties, 40 WAS old (remember “don’t trust anyone over 30”?) and the theme for this season does seem to be that the old guard is being overshadowed by the younger, hipper and more energetic next generation. Roger Sterling is particularly panic-stricken by Pete Campbell’s (who I still think is a a little weasel) aggressive climb up the ladder and watching Peggy hustle $400 out of him was both shocking and delightful.</p>
<p>I’m also among those of us who were the same age as Sally in that era and it’s totally realistic that Henry’s mother would have given her half a Seconal to help her sleep. Doctors at that time would hand out tranquilizers, sleeping pills and diet pills to woman without batting an eye and I can remember one friend’s mother in particular taking them by the handful. The only surprise for me was that Betty’s doctor didn’t write the diet pill prescription immediately.</p>
<p>This season is totally different from the preceding ones, which I loved, but I’m very excited to see where this is all going. I think Don is going to be very surprised by his new wife (not necessarily happily, either).</p>
<p>“The only surprise for me was that Betty’s doctor didn’t write the diet pill prescription immediately.”
I agree completely–in fact when I was watching that I screamed “NO WAY!” at the television. And last week when Don was backstage at the Stones concert, H and I both simultaneously blurted out “what a drag it is getting old”.(!)</p>
<p>Am I the only one who had a mother who took “nerve pills” lol! Took them for years and years.</p>
<p>I love how they have shown the evolution of Peggy. She started out as this uptight little Catholic girl and now she has a lesbian friend, a Jewish boyfriend and is befriending the black girl. You go girl! I love how they show the prejudice of the 60’s and how those things began to change.</p>
<p>Off topic but: Today, a disturbingly large percentage (not a majority, yet) of middle age and older aged women in the US are prescribed what used to called “nerve pills”, AKA “happy pills”. The Pharma companies love it.</p>
<p>Lane V Pete. Worth the price of admission.</p>
<p>The men watching was priceless…</p>