Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Mad Men Round Up!

I know, I know, I picked a hell of a time to slack off and miss posting. At this point there have been two incredible episodes of Mad since I last posted. I’ll probably skip the Game of Thrones talk, but hit the jump for some spoilery stuff about Mad Men.
First there was The Field Trip. We finally get to catch up with Betty! I missed her. I didn’t miss Bobby. He’s back and he learned how to act with his hands! I know children are a fact of life and any show set in a world without children would seem really weird, but dammit, stop putting kids in things. Sally is the only exception, of course. Between Bobby and the kids in Walking Dead I’m ready for an epidemic to sweep through the AMC-averse and take all children under the age of 15 or so. Anyways. The important thing is Betty is back, and she’s as cold as ever. Her meal with Ms. Wanderlust probably made her feel like she’s missing a little something in life, something she thought her life with Henry Francis and her children would fulfil. Perhaps to convince herself she’s a great mom, and the kids adore her, she agrees to chaperone Bobby’s class on a trip to the farm. Her and Bobby have a nice conversation on the bus about Universal Monsters (I’m assuming he’s talking about the Aurora Model kits), and things are going great, until she notices her son’s teacher shows a little too much skin for her taste. Perhaps another reminder of her diminishing youthfulness? Or just general cattiness and judgement? And is it just me, or did she seem offended when the other chaperone thought the same about the teacher she did? She volunteers to drink milk straight from the bucket. Gross. I thought that little scene was awkward and I didn’t really get why they bothered to put that in. Madeline had a pretty good theory on that. Bug her tell you. Then came lunch. Now, I understand that Bobby may be hard to love, but she really lays it on thick when he trades her sandwich for some gum drops. Obviously he’s not used to seeing Mom eat and assumed she’d just stick to a cigarette as usual.


Also: Don visits Megan, tells her the truth about his job and choice to remain in New York all this time, she’s upset, and acts like she wants to end it. Don visits Roger, Roger asks Don to come back, but when Don shows up, they leave him hanging out in the creative lounge all day, until they finally make him an offer - he can come back, but will have to stick to the script during all meetings, not be allowed to drink, take Lane’s old office, and answer to Lou. He eagerly accepts!

Then this past Sunday, we saw The Monolith. Even though I was unaware of the title, one of the first shots got me excited for my favorite thing ever: Kubrick references! This episode was littered with them, and while I didn’t catch them all on my own, this article does a pretty good job of pointing them out. It did miss a favorite of mine though: when Draper decides to tie one on after a period of (relative) abstinence, who’s around? Good ol’ Lloyd.



4 comments:

  1. DB, have you seen "Model Shop," the movie Don was watching at the beginning of Field Trip? I read this really great article about it, and now I'd really like to see it, along with Jacques Demy's other stuff.

    http://badassdigest.com/2014/05/04/the-annotated-mad-men-jacques-demy-and-led-zeppelin/

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  2. I haven't seen it, I was wondering what movie he was watching. I have seen a couple of Demy films - "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is a classic - and it looks like "Model Shop" is available for DVD rental on Netflix.

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  3. I think I figured out what my Mad Men problem is. This Don Draper that we see now- kind of pathetic and what not- is the Don Draper I saw all along. For me there was no fall of this great man, I always saw him as this Don.

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  4. Talk about Ginsberg's nipple! Talk about Ginsberg's nipple! Talk about Ginsberg's nipple!

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