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Post by lola on May 30, 2014 4:31:39 GMT
I watched all of last season a few weeks ago on Netflix, and will probably wait and bingewatch this season in a similar way. I felt that what was happening to Don -- getting fired, doing that Hershey's thing, showing his kids the old whorehouse -- were hopeful signs that he was starting to integrate his past and present selves. And that he'd find some kind of peace.
Like the child of a broken home who wants her parents back together, I'd be fine with a Don & Betty reunion.
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Post by lola on May 30, 2014 15:50:32 GMT
I still like Joan, as of last season anyway, at least as much as any of the other principal complicated women. Affair with married Roger not so nice, of course, but I can see him being a tad irresistible. (I do pity the actress for last season's killer corsetage, or should I say bosom-age. Quite the distraction. Hope it's not even more so now.)
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Post by bixaorellana on May 31, 2014 0:21:21 GMT
A Don & Betty reunion would be something, but so complicated and full of potential that it would need another few seasons.
I think all of the women on the show have had at least a one-nighter with a married man. But it's Joan's prissy, downright meanness to Don this season that was the final straw against her for me. Who the hell is she to be so judgmental?
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Post by lola on May 31, 2014 0:22:29 GMT
Well, really. I thought she and Don were buddies.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 31, 2014 4:30:18 GMT
Joan's only buddy is Joan. I have never been able to understand how women watching the show could root for Joan.
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Post by lola on May 31, 2014 15:16:19 GMT
Is it possible we respond to something about the actresses that we subconsciously like or dislike? Could be the case with me.
I don't see anything subjectively worse about Joan's actions than Peggy's. Peggy has always annoyed me a bit, possibly due to some forgotten first grade classmate. Or maybe it was a bad first impression when she tried to make moves on Don within the first 48 hrs of setting foot in the office.
But I try not to be judgmental!
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Post by bixaorellana on May 31, 2014 16:08:07 GMT
Re: Joan & Don being buddies ~~ there was a good episode which hinted at a professional alliance between them, another thing lost to me due to the huge lapse between seasons. Along with probably everyone else, I forget a good bit of the story, or can't keep it correctly in context. I think the rather arrogant assumption that the show is so important to viewers that they'll keep the flame burning despite long months of waiting has hurt it, not only in ratings, but in simple narrative logic.
You're undoubtedly correct about our gut reactions to actors being based on something subconscious &/or the fact that they remind us of real-life people.
I think my sympathy for Peggy lies in her wrong-footedness, something I see as a result of her social discomfort & feeling of not being a pretty, right-thinking female of her time. Also, Elisabeth Moss is a far better actress than Christina Hendricks, so her character comes off as multi-dimensional, whereas Joan as simply moved through time and work promotions without any indication of anything under the surface.
I, of course, don't have a judgmental bone in my body.
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Post by lola on May 31, 2014 23:21:02 GMT
Hmm, yes I see what you mean, Bixa.
I have more judgmental bones than I know what to do with, I'm afraid. Better to exercise on fictional characters than ones' loved ones and coworkers.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 5:41:09 GMT
I took another look last night since one of the cable channels was showing it nonstop all through the evening. I am too viscerally repelled by that time period -- impossible for me to watch more than about 3 minutes before cracking.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2014 16:02:21 GMT
Mmmmm. Why the visceral response you attribute to this era K2?
As for me, I have not abandoned the series by any way shape or form, or, well I did at one point but, went back in and watched all of the episodes up until the latest season. ( We get AMC but, I cannot abide the time it is aired, and, then all the commercial interruptions). T. is much more up to date than I am but, I've asked him to not "spoil" it
I have never really disliked either Joan or Peggy's characters. I can see why some would...but, my theory on this is both a combination of what's already been shared in this thread, the sub or unconscious response to someone we may have known. And, Elizabeth Moss is so brilliant an actress, I can forgive her for just about anything. Both their social backgrounds I have encountered and understand more than the average viewer. Especially Peggy and her clan. Actually, almost all of the major characters on here I have had some real life exposure to and are not that foreign to me. And so, the writing continues to be brilliant and I am re-hooked. I do regret the lapse between seasons as being "Madmenning".
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Post by lola on Jan 21, 2015 18:46:55 GMT
So I finally got the latest half-season from the library and binge-watched it. Better than ever I think.
Bert's song at the end brought me to tears. One of the great song-and-dance men of the 20th century, yes indeed.
And good for Joan turning Benson down.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 27, 2015 23:52:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2015 0:05:15 GMT
I presume you are referring to Season 7 Lola and Bixa?
I just watched 2 days ago. Yes, I loved Bert's exit.
I think I may have missed a bit of Season 6 because there were a lot of gaps but, I was able to fill them in intuitively although, I may on a whim go back and see.
I saw in the news that Jon Hamm was admitted into rehab IRL a few days ago for alcohol dependence.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2015 22:50:50 GMT
I believe that tonight is the last of Season 7's episodes.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2015 23:13:03 GMT
I have always refused to watch Mad Men because it takes place in the period of time that I despise the most, but I read an article about it today that explained that the title of the show is a double play on words: Ad Men and Madison Avenue Men. Being a non-viewer, I do not have the slightest idea if everybody who watches this already knows that.
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Post by lola on Apr 6, 2015 3:58:14 GMT
Casimira, I'm not watching the last episodes until I can get them on Netflix or on DVD, either, and then typically watch 2 or 3 at a time. So I'll catch up after everyone else has lost interest.
I am going to be royally steamed if they have Don do himself in. Way too predictable. How about Don and Peggy or Joan getting a nice 3 br apartment over the next few episodes and settling down together, raising the kids, going to plays, being civil to the exes, taking up jogging, fade out. The Hollywood ending would be most startling.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2015 4:28:28 GMT
I still have an aversion to that period of time, so I am unable to watch. A good job that the series isn't about clowns as well then. Still funny after all these years. I have always refused to watch Mad Men because it takes place in the period of time that I despise the most, but I read an article about it today that explained that the title of the show is a double play on words: Ad Men and Madison Avenue Men. Being a non-viewer, I do not have the slightest idea if everybody who watches this already knows that. a) So I guess you won't be going to see Selma then? b) Yes, I believe most Mad Men viewers know about the play on words. c) Just watch the damned show, okay?! From having read so many of your reviews of movies, I'd say you're the perfect candidate to appreciate the pace and nuance of Mad Men.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2015 5:03:31 GMT
You're right -- I did not go to see Selma.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2015 5:55:00 GMT
I really am surprised!
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Post by htmb on Apr 6, 2015 11:40:06 GMT
I tried watching Mad Men once or twice at the beginning. I just didn't get it, and also did not care to relive that era.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 6, 2015 13:21:07 GMT
I haven't been to see Selma yet; it doesn't seem to be showing now in Mtl. I'd like to see it with a friend of mine who is a decade older than I am and who was born in Birmingham Alabama. Her mother (they are white) was involved in civil rights down there (up there for Bixa...).
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Mad Men
Apr 6, 2015 19:53:49 GMT
via mobile
Post by Kimby on Apr 6, 2015 19:53:49 GMT
I've enjoyed this thread - thanks Bixa, Casi, Lola - because we stopped watching after two seasons., Though I was mildly hooked, Mr. Kimby had seen enough, and I'm not going to spend all those hours in the TV room alone.
Meanwhile, we've watched all of Breaking Bad, most of The Wire, 2 seasons each of Homeland and US House of Cards.
Looking for another series to get hooked on. Suggestions?
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Mad Men
Apr 6, 2015 19:58:33 GMT
via mobile
Post by Kimby on Apr 6, 2015 19:58:33 GMT
BTW, I DO like the mid-century modern look of the series and the naughty adult aura because that time was my parents' peak years and as a pre-teen, I absorbed it like a sponge.
I regret that the US has become more prudish at the same times as it's become more highly sexualized.
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Post by lola on Apr 7, 2015 2:29:29 GMT
Definitely try Better Call Saul, Kimby. We're watching it on Netflix, with our VPN set as if in France. Pretty much a good idea to start at the beginning.
Never could get into Breaking Bad somehow, but this spinoff series has a great sense of humor.
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Post by lola on Apr 8, 2015 0:10:20 GMT
Sarah Larson in New Yorker online, after having seen the recent episode:
"Call me a sentimental fool, but I’d like to see the good ones—Don, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Joan (Christina Hendricks), maybe Roger (John Slattery)—sort themselves out and find somebody to love."
Yes! Me too! and how could I forget Roger. OK: Roger and Joan raise that baby, and Don + Peggy.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2015 17:44:06 GMT
I though the most recent episode was rather choppy, but am grateful that it's back on.
Extremely interesting exchange between Joan & Peggy in the elevator, illuminating attitudes that persist to this day.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 15, 2015 5:20:34 GMT
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