<p>My father had a crewcut from the time he was in the Navy during WWII until the day he died. 
But he was highly unusual in that regard.</p>
<p>The suit Betty was wearing was in period, but women would not have worn it on a grade school field trip to a farm. But that’s Betty. The smoking on a school bus? No.</p>
<p>Actually, my father did wear a hat. He worked for a bank in downtown Manhattan. I think he wore it throughout the 70s. But he was hopelessly old-fashioned. He also wore a (really really bad) toupee. My grandmother ran a hat company which she closed in the late 60s, partly because she was retiring and partly because the hat business had died.</p>
<p>Tom and Lorenzo’s blog doesn’t say much about Betty’s farm outfit, other than that she is hopelessly overdressed and really stands out. (If you are into Mad Men, you really should read their blog, especially the Mad Style entries.) One thing they’ve pointed out is that while we all think the 60s is about hippies and bell bottoms and wild patterns, there was an emerging conservatism in fashion. Think of the Nixon daughters. Betty fits into that late 60s, early 70s trend. </p>
<p>I figured the sandwich was Betty and the gumdrops represented Megan. </p>
<p>And I think the women in the workplace having enough “gumption” to throw snits in the workplace IS a sign of progress. You never would have seen that when the show started. Only the men could have tantrums.q</p>
<p>I know it’s a soap opera but this is the second episode in a row I didn’t like. My reason is this: for several years, we’ve been part of Don’s transition from playing a fake role in a fake life to being his real self. Last week, they made him stupid and they continued that this week. The big scene in Bert’s office with Bert speaking with genuine contempt and dislike … “Why are you here?” Because I started this company. “Along with a dead man whose office you now inhabit.” So he gets drunk. And Freddy tells him “Do the work, Don” and he does. Whoopee. (Sarcasm intended.)</p>
<p>Is this really where Don is after all these years? In his last conversation with Megan, he said I love you and now he sits day after day in a dead man’s office? ■■■? </p>
<p>I got the song: Graham Nash and The Hollies “On a carousel”, which is the second reference to Don’s pitch to Kodak about the “Kodak Carousel” in 2 weeks. (Last week, Ken mentioned he takes his kids to a carousel and always thinks of that presentation.) </p>
<p>Well, at least there was no Betty this week. </p>
<p>The Pete scenes felt like mere plot advancement. </p>
<p>The Roger and Mona stuff felt like another movie and it went in the predictable direction: at the end, after “being cool”, he reverts to bully type and tries to throw his non-existent weight around. About the only surprise was Maragaret/Marigold’s sort of absurd expression of hatred, as though her father’s mistreatment of her somehow justifies her mistreatment of her son. I gather the point is she’s exactly like Roger, that she’s spoiled and self-centered and willing to hurt anyone when it suits her. </p>
<p>The scenes of the destruction of the creative department likely have future meaning. Instead of a creative space, they now have a glass walled computer room. Or as Bert says to Don, you were expecting “a big creative crisis” but we’re fine. Yeah, they’re fine, maybe because creative work isn’t an issue, isn’t a priority at big agencies and they’re now one of those. </p>
<p>I note that Jim Cutler does not grasp why Ted is in LA. I suspect that comes out.</p>
<p>And Peggy has become a real jerk. </p>
<p>Some of the basic stuff bothers me: where’s the money to pay 3 creative directors? How is a partnership interest “reabsorbed”? When they started the company, they had to sign an agreement. I used to draft those things. The stuff they’ve described would not fly in court. They explicitly put Don on leave of absence. If they intended him to seek other employment, as Joan put it, then they are likely in violation of the agreement because there are buyout provisions with notices. If they then bring him back in to give themselves an excuse to terminate him for cause and take back his partnership interest - which would be nearly impossible because it’s surely vested - then they’ve committed fraud and a bunch of other acts and would get killed by lawyers. I know, it’s soap opera.</p>
<p>Lergnom–thank you! I had a lot of the same thoughts. Especially the part where everyone acts like they fired Don when they put him on leave and he is a full partner. That just didn’t seem possible. I’m sure it is setting up a future plot twist, but they really stretched things this time.</p>
<p>Well, Peggy got her own back, that’s for sure. She’s turning into every late 60s career-woman stereotype. And Ted is still mopey … I was surprised that Cooper went after Don like that - I thought that he and Roger were at least semi-on Don’s side. Another thing that surprised me was Don getting so sloppy drunk. I’m glad Freddy got him out of there because I want to see him succeed. As for Roger and “Marigold” - to me that felt contrived. They wanted to persue a hippie storyline and Sally’s on the young side for that, so they picked Margaret, which to me is just as unrealistic. </p>
<p>You can see a victory of account managers over creative but it’s absurd that Bert Cooper is there: he does nothing, meets with no clients - which used to be referred to repeatedly - and yet has a big office that costs a lot of money. They flipped the show from two creative shops run by Ted and Don to a top 30 agency run by account managers. I suspect that’s important. </p>
<p>To add, I’m sure Don’s contract has a non-compete clause, which are still valid in NY. He couldn’t get another job so any offer to reinstate him with conditions designed to take away his partnership interest would be, to put it mildly, highly suspect. This kind of thing bothers me.</p>
<p>To begin with, who saw it coming that Freddie Rumson would be the most decent human being in the entire Mad Men universe (with the possible exception of Anna Draper)? I love that the man who completely humiliated himself and was an object of ridicule and disdain; who Roger and Don fired and dumped into a cab; and who Peggy shows total disrespect for, ends up being the only true friend Don has in the world.</p>
<p>That said, I’m really getting fed up with (nearly) all the women in the cast. Peggy seems to have learned nothing from all her years in the business and from all of Don’s alternating support and abuse. I don’t understand the level of anger at him from both Joan and Peggy, given he has shown the two of them more respect than any other man in the firm. Again, how can Joan possibly think “this is working”?</p>
<p>Too late to edit my earlier post but Roger’s secretary, Caroline rocks!</p>
<p>Is this still supposed to be the last season? I thought I’d heard that somewhere last year. I feel like things in Mad Men world are so different now, I am left wanting to see where this is going to go… and thinking it is probably going to go nowhere if this is the last season, they can over cover so much material. I want to see how Dawn will do in Joan’s old job, why they are bothering to develop Joan’s career when it seems like she’s not really doing anything with it anyway, what is Peggy’s misery about and where is this going, and how on EARTH can they wrap up the giant mess that Don’s life has become in just one more season? And I kind of miss Pete… the mess of his life was interesting to me, too. I dunno, it doesn’t feel like a last season to me! Instead of tying up loose ends they are making more, but I guess it’s early yet.</p>
<p>This is not the last season; it will end in 2015. </p>
<p>I thought last year started slow and then the last episodes were awesome. Last night when they said we only have 3 new episodes left, I found myself wondering if we are going to get anything to be excited about before the hiatus.</p>
<p>Of course Joan thinks things are “working.” When Don was there, she was a glorified office manager. Now, she’s in accounts. With Don coming back, that could change.</p>
<p>How can that possibly change? Don is basically being treated like a low level copywriter and very close to losing his partnership and his financial shares. Joan is a partner and is only in accounts because she got away with cheating Pete out of the Avon business (with Peggy’s reluctant help). Joan actually seemed more business-savvy when she was the office manager; she really understood how SCDP worked. Now she seems blind to the fact that their creative department is in complete shambles (and creative is this outfit’s entire product), everyone there is miserable and the company is getting a bad reputation.</p>
<p>Even when he’s been a very bad boy, Don is a creative genius and the reason the agency existed at all after the British company sold SC. In reality, he could have been snapped up very quickly by any of the really powerful agencies of the time (McCann or Wells, Rich & Greene). Joan’s hostility to him seems to be entirely based on his screwing up the IPO, but if the agency tanks she’ll be lucky to get a secretarial job somewhere else. Her attitude just makes no sense.</p>
<p>I think she’s afraid it could change because Don is a creative genius and can charm the birds out of trees. She’s afraid if they give him an inch he’ll take a mile and he’ll be back in the catbird seat. I don’t think the IPO itself has as much to do with her hostility as the firing of Jaguar. She really went after Don in that episode and it’s still festering. </p>
<p>I think Mad Men jumped the shark this season. Really sad because I really like the show. But no way are people treating Don this way. There is no way. </p>
<p>I don’t think it jumped the shark. Don is going to come back and blow everyone out of the water. That Mets pennant is as symbolic as it gets. </p>
<p>“I think Mad Men jumped the shark this season. Really sad because I really like the show. But no way are people treating Don this way. There is no way”.</p>
<p>Unless there is a big turnaround, I am starting to agree. The unrealistic way they are dealing with Don’s character is really wearing on my nerves. </p>
<p>Anything more incongruent than Don reading Portnoy’s Complaint?</p>
<p>Part of me was disappointed Roger’s daughter wasn’t a member of a Paul Kinsey-led, Star Trek/Hare Krishna-based cult.</p>
<p>Did you catch the few Shining nods? </p>
<ul>
<li>The computer salesman, whom Don vents to at length a la Jack Torrance, was named Lloyd, like the bartender in the Shining.
Don and Jack both seem to believe that their counterpart is the devil (Don says his Lloyd is “known by many names”).</li>
<li>Don walks into an empty room and hears a distant celebration</li>
<li>Ellery looked a lot like Danny chasing the secretary through the hall.</li>
</ul>
<p>The caveat being that I have no knowledge of how contracts work, partnerships, etc, I don’t find their treatment of Don to be that unrealistic. They put him on a pedestal because he could deliver, they idolized him, and all last season he was becoming increasingly irrelevant and out of touch until he crashed and burned in front of a client. He spent most of the last season sleeping on his couch and drinking while life went on without him. He may still be a genius, but he’s not their idol anymore and they, foolishly or not, think they can get on without him. They probably quite like the idea that they don’t need Don anymore-- what company wants to think their entire fate rests on the shoulders of one person, especially one that has proven unreliable. They don’t worship at the altar of Don anymore, and that probably feels pretty good-- especially for Joan who thinks she has power now, and Peggy who seemingly wanted to be Don-- and now his place on the pedestal is vacated, ready for her to climb up, even though she can’t so now she’s miserable. </p>
<p>The higher they are, the farther they have to fall. That’s the trouble with putting someone on a pedestal, and I think Don was at the very top. The idea that their loyalty to him would last even in failure is just silly, that’s not how companies work. Businessmen are fickle friends. It probably pumps the other partners egos to think they can do it without Don, especially apparently Joan who thinks “this is working.” Well it’s working for HER I suppose, for now.</p>