Mad Men

[Reaper16]

Season 4 premiered tonight. I would have bumped the season three thread but I titled it "season 3," which no longer seems appropriate.

Who saw it? It was a stupendous hour of television. All sorts of shit has happened in the eleven months that have passed (in-story) between the formation of Sterling Cooper Draper Price and the beginning of season 4. The premeir was stepped in the juices of the sexual revolution. It also had a lot to say about the increasing role of the media in the success or failure of things. It was great to see Don fail a little bit, and it was exciting to consider the future implications at the end of Don crafting a public/media persona that is completely unlike his actual personality.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by SLAG

So many plates spinning, but its missing something the Sopranos had that kept me wanting more each week, but with Mad Men its becoming more and more forgettable

I can understand becoming disillusioned with Mad Men because the builds are slow (yet the payoffs are HUGE) but I don't find the program forgettable in the least.

[Silock]

It's not forgettable. It's just that this season is boring.

[Thig Lyfe]

Originally Posted by Silock

It's not forgettable. It's just that this season is boring.

YOU'RE boring!!!

[keg in kc]

Good finale. Almost felt like more happened in the last 10 minutes than the last 10 weeks.

[SLAG]

Ted's transformation into Don was complete and he saw how and where that path leads to and came to a realization that took Don years to come to.

Don also grew in knowing that he can't run away from his problems- he has to deal with them head on - and for some reason his childhood in the bordello he just can't shake and blames for all of his current problems it seems.

I'm just sad no one actually died this last season - unless you count the FAF Don Draper and the rebirth of Dick Whitman aka Don Draper

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

I wondered if that scene existed in Weiner's mind at any point prior to Cheney's whoopsie.

why would Cheney have to be it? I have a buddy who got shot just like that as well.

[DJ's left nut]

Yeah, that was a great finale.

I was really hoping Don would head off to California, but really Meghan's right - they're not going to work. Don can't have a career-oriented, ambitious wife.

I presume everyone took that final scene as the same "**** you" to Sally that I took it as. The sideways look pretty much said "sweetheart, you have no concept of a broken home; get your shit together".

I do feel like the Hershey meeting was something of a deus ex machina. Nothing really explains the outburst; not the DTs, not the downtrodden look from Ted, not even a bit of sudden clarity. Don still would've swallowed that because he's still a pro in this game. Weiner wanted one more straw to give SCP a reason to send him away for a bit and so he contrived one.

It'll be damn interesting to see how next season starts. The last episode did more to build anticipation than the rest of the season combined.

[keg in kc]

I thought that both the scene in the conference room with the Hershey guys and the scene at the end where he took the kids to the house felt like he was just dropping all the bullshit and being honest. Trying to do something he hadn't done before.

[DJ's left nut]

Weiner doesn't do redemption, though.

Because lets face it - he's right. Would any of us really expect Don to right the ship at this point? He's had so many opportunities and so many potentially life-altering events that he's shrugged off and stayed on the same path through.

Yet I'm supposed to believe that Ted Chaugh going all Eeyore on him is what did it? Don was completely lucid and just blew apart a potentially massive account. Don is still the same Don that went out there and stole Chevy because he's a brilliant ad-man. A lucid Don just doesn't do what he did there.

And the funniest part? Somehow Bert Cooper is still swinging an axe. How the hell can SCP justify giving Don the thumb and letting Cooper continue to wield a hammer?

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yeah, that was a great finale.

I was really hoping Don would head off to California, but really Meghan's right - they're not going to work. Don can't have a career-oriented, ambitious wife.

I presume everyone took that final scene as the same "**** you" to Sally that I took it as. The sideways look pretty much said "sweetheart, you have no concept of a broken home; get your shit together".

I do feel like the Hershey meeting was something of a deus ex machina. Nothing really explains the outburst; not the DTs, not the downtrodden look from Ted, not even a bit of sudden clarity. Don still would've swallowed that because he's still a pro in this game. Weiner wanted one more straw to give SCP a reason to send him away for a bit and so he contrived one.

It'll be damn interesting to see how next season starts. The last episode did more to build anticipation than the rest of the season combined.

While your cynicism toward Don normally would be well-placed, I agree with Keg on this. I think Don's reversal was genuine. He's hit rock bottom, and he's trying to begin the climb back up.

Two things key this in: Ted telling Don "I know there's a good man in there," and the preacher in the bar telling Don "The only unpardonable sin is to believe God cannot forgive you.”

I think when Don in that meeting saw his hand shaking and looked at Ted's face, he became Dick Whitman. And when he took the kids to the whorehouse, he wasn't trying to teach Sally a lesson. He was being Dick Whitman: "Kids, this is who, and what, I am."

I think the series could've ended right there: Don confronting and embracing his past, leaving SCP and NY behind; Ted and Pete going to Calif.; Betty in Albany beginning Henry's political career; and especially, Peggy sitting in Don's desk, literally wearing the pants.

As it is, it will be interesting to see where next season picks up in Don's redemption tour. Will he be Dick Whitman? Don was a reconstituted Dick. Perhaps the final season will be Dick as a reconstituted Don. Or will it ultimately prove impossible, and Don/Dick will face a tragic end, unable to resolve the two? (And by tragic, I don't necessarily mean suicidal/dead, but more like sitting alone, old, with NOTHING of his past -- family, career, etc. -- to hold on to.)

[keg in kc]

I didn't say anything about redemption...

What he did with Hershey's was the last straw that got him fired. That's probably the lesson he'll take from that. And he may have just been burning bridges there. It's hard to tell. I thought he was just letting go and being honest there, though.

We haven't seen the repercussions of showing the kids the cathouse, but I doubt it'll be Sally suddenly just forgiving him for banging the neighbor's wife. Although I did think it was a bigger move with the kids, because he was letting them in on a secret from his past. That's almost a loving thing. Which ain't any Don I've ever seen.

Even if he is changing (and we haven't seen enough to say one way or the other) it doesn't mean anything's going to go his way.

[DJ's left nut]

Do we think he's truly gone altogether from SCP?

Duck bringing in a replacement obviously doesn't bode well, but even with his quirks, Don's still a young man by relative standards and was instrumental in the biggest developments SCP ever had. They know the guy has a fastball and they have to know that it's in SCP's interest that he recapture it.

Perhap's Duck showing up and their refusal to give him a return date was really meant to tell the audience that his 'sabbatical' was actually a firing, but I'm not quite convinced of that.

Smart businessmen don't cast out good people if they can attempt to rehabilitate them. Then again, Freddy Rumsen's 'time away' was clearly never intended for him to come back from. With this season so frequently slipping back into the first couple of years of the show, perhaps Don really did just get Rumsen'd. Afterall, it was Sterling that gave Rumsen the 'leave of absence' treatment making it clear that Rumsen wouldn't be welcomed back and that the terminology was a favor for his years of service.

Eh...maybe y'all are right. Perhaps Draper did just get shitcanned.

[Red Brooklyn]

I didn't view Don's Hershey pitch as redemption of any kind either. There is some honesty there and I do think it was genuine to a degree. But he also got what he wanted. He didn't want Hershey to advertise. He took matters into his own hands, like he's done all season, and did it his way. And just like classic Don Draper, he didn't think he'd get in trouble for it. I don't think for a minute he thought they'd call him out on it. There's hubris all over that scene and even his "sabbatical."

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn

I didn't view Don's Hershey pitch as redemption of any kind either. There is some honesty there and I do think it was genuine to a degree. But he also got what he wanted. He didn't want Hershey to advertise. He took matters into his own hands, like he's done all season, and did it his way. And just like classic Don Draper, he didn't think he'd get in trouble for it. I don't think for a minute he thought they'd call him out on it. There's hubris all over that scene and even his "sabbatical."

Eh, he was excited about the Hershey meeting. He wanted that business (in my mind Don the businessman wanted that business more than Don the guy wanted them not to advertise). And then he immediately sent Ted to Cali, something we know Don wanted. I really think that was meant as a coming to Jesus moment...I just thought it was ham-fisted.

[Pitt Gorilla]

The Trudy scenes looked really green-screened to me. I'm not sure she and Pete were ever in the same room (not that it matters).