Crazy About Mad Men!

I agree! I never believed in spanking or hitting kids. I was spanked. I think the previous generation to ours was all about that. My folks sure got some major lickings - with belts and such :( So awful.

I think both Don and Betty need help in the parenting department. Don loves his kids, but has issues that is for sure. I have only seen the 4 episodes from this season, but Betty doesn't seem very maternal. She seems so put out my her kids. Not even realizing that they didn't have dinner. Perhaps she had her kids too young and feels they have held her back from doing some things she would love to do.

That whole Sunday dinner scene at the beginning with Father Gil took me back to my childhood (like this show often does). I had an aunt and uncle with a home so similar and many times when I was little we would go there for Sunday dinner after mass. That aunt and uncle have both passed on and sadly both their sons, my cousins Bobby and Tommy, died of cancer when they were 52.

I think that is one reason I love this show. It's brings back a flood of childhood memories along with the excellent storytelling.

If you see any of S1 you will see Betty is incredibly vain. she does seem out out by her kids though. I wonder how old they are supposed to be? 30's? I can't really tell. I hope Pete is on next week.

Did you watch? I recorded it and will watch tonight. I can't wait.

YES!! I watched last night! It was GOOD! I was going to talk about it, but didn't know if you guys watched it yet. So come here after you watch it and we can talk about it!

I just want to say that January Jones is so freaking beautiful it is insane!!!

Man , what a great episode. I just knew Don helped out Peggy in her crisis. I wonder if he knows about the baby?! I was LMAO when Betty banned salt. Too funny. I just LOVE when Peggy and Pete are on , even if not together. I love that actor that plays Pete. He has the coolest voice. And even though he is basically a cad he seems quite vulnerable.He is a great character. I do not , not like jimmy and his wife. It is time for them to bye. Oh , oh the pretty brunette Don encountered in the restuarant was a dept . Store Heiress he had an affair with last year. He fell for her but she dumped him. She is so pretty. The best part of the show had to be when Peggy called Mr . Draper Don. Go Peggy!! The look on his face was priceless.

I also just adore Peggy! There is something very special about that actress. She is not your typical Hollywood beauty, but she is very real and charming. I love Pete too! I adored that actor as Connor on Angel. Again - not typical handsome actor but a great character actor!

Don was very sweet and kind to Peggy (except for forgetting to pay her back the bail money ) So there is good in him - deep down in there. I also laughed out loud when Betty banned the salt! Serves him right! He sure does sleep around!

I just knew there was some MAJOR past between Don and the gorgeous brunette! I look forward to seeing where that is heading this season!

Jimmy needs a swift kick upside the head! And his wifey is trip! I don't know how Don can stand her! I can see where she is good for Jimmy, but man even though Don is a cad I would think he would be one with good taste!!

Honestly, I don't know how Don can look Betty and the kids in their faces when he gets home But it looks like Betty may be on her way to riding more than horses at the stables if you know what I mean!

Quote :

If you're still mad about Mad Men (and you really should be), you'll want to fire up your DVR or TiVo on Sunday. Starting at 5 p.m., AMC will air a Mad Men marathon of the first five episodes of the second season. That means you can see the once mousy Betty going toe-to-toe and shoving her hubby in a way most '60s suburban housewives would've been afraid to. I loved the scene two weeks ago in which Betty, tired of hearing Don's rap about making all the money and paying all the bills and her not feeling appreciated for being a stay-at-home mom, shouted to him, "I'm here all day, alone with them. Outnumbered!"
Way to go, Betty! As anyone who has kids knows, being a parent is a job -- and one of the most important (and rewarding) ones you'll ever have. If ya ask me, single mothers have one of the toughest jobs in the world.
Each week we see yet another crack in Betty's china doll face, a crack that is slowly exposing her unhappiness deep within. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, well, you'll have five hours worth of Mad Men episodes to find out.

I just saw that in the TV Guide! I have seen all 5 episodes this season. I wish they would run a season 1 marathon!

My cable provider has now put all the episodes from this season in a free ondemand section. I love it. I just watched last night's episode. There were a few scenes that actually turned my stomach they were so nasty.

And Betty - I agree - all the cracks are showing up especially as Don is going downhill.

Love this show.

Yep! Last night had some real moments! Don really is a cad!! I don't want to ruin anything for those who have not watched yet - but one part really pissed me off!!!!!

Excellent show though! Could have lived without the dancer's tatas though!

Firecracker wrote:

I don't want to ruin anything for those who have not watched yet - but one part really pissed me off!!!!!

Would that have been Don's "double standards" with Betty? That part caused a reaction for me.

You got it! I wanted to smack him upside the head! Betty should have!

I swear I am rooting for her to get it on with the horse guy just to get back at Don the cad!

Our cable system's had On-Demand for a while now. I love it because you can watch episodes over and over again as long as they're available which is usually a few weeks or so.

In fact, most of the time I end up watching shows On Demand rather than when they're live. I also just got DVR for those shows that arent available On Demand.

Is On-Demand considered a premium service?

I don't think so. With Charter, you do have to have expanded basic cable to get it but I don't know about other cable companies.

Our on demand it a part of the IO cable service. There are some free sections and some you have to pay for. Mad Men is in the free section.

BTW - the scene that made me want to get sick was when Peggy joined the crew at that Tom Tom Club and she sat on the client's lap. Ughhh, what women did to try to work their way into the work force.

Yeah, that was bad too. But at least she looked really pretty!

Charter works the same way. If you subscribe to a premium channel, you get their On Demand product free. If not, they give you a chance to order the channel.

Watching the show this morning, I was noticing how Pete was looking at Peggy and I was wondering something. He's the father of her baby, right? Maybe they'll have it where somehow he finds out and he tries to convince Peggy's family to let him "adopt" it since he and his wife are having trouble conceiving. Of course, he doesn't tell either them or Trudy that he is the father.

Oooh!! That sounds very much like what they could be leading up too! THAT would make a great storyline too!

Badger wrote:

Watching the show this morning, I was noticing how Pete was looking at Peggy and I was wondering something. He's the father of her baby, right? Maybe they'll have it where somehow he finds out and he tries to convince Peggy's family to let him "adopt" it since he and his wife are having trouble conceiving. Of course, he doesn't tell either them or Trudy that he is the father.

I Wonered about this too. He doesn't know right now but I bet he finds out.

Boy this episode made me blood boil! First of all when Don berated Betty about that bathing suit. I wanted to knock him baldheaded. But the thing that made me FURIOUS was when duck put that beautiful dog out into the steet so he could go take a drink. He must be PUNISHED for that. I hate him now. If you can be that cruel to an animal you are capable of anything. I just love when pete and Peggy are on so I was glad they had screen time. And Pete has the nerve ti be jealous of Peggy dressing up. Those Men!! argh!

The men certainly are not looking good in this program. I didn't know Pete was the father of Peggy's child. That explains some actions and reactions that were puzzling. Don seemed troubled that he has a reputation. Surprise!!

I'll have to check out my cable service. It's just basic service, so I may not have the on-demand option.

From the Chicago Trib:

Quote :

Thoughts on 'Mad Men's' second season and why this deeply compelling drama can be hard to watch

Below are some thoughts on Episodes 1-6 of "Mad Men's" second season.

With “Mad Men,” I never know what to expect.

Of course, I expect complicated and evocative storytelling, the kind of television that rewards watching each episode twice.

Don_sardis

Still, I confess I’m a little thrown this season. I don’t know what I was expecting this year, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so sad. This season, “Mad Men” has dwelled even more obsessively on what it costs to get ahead – to win. Sometimes that cost is devastating.

My reaction –a surprising sense of melancholy as the season unfolds – shouldn’t be taken as a criticism. For any work of fiction to evoke a visceral emotional reaction is an accomplishment. Still, despite its wonderful wit and occasional playfulness, it can’t be denied that this season of the show is darker than Season 1. We know these people better, and to see them inflict more pain on each other and themselves isn’t easy.

Take Betty Draper’s treatment of her little boy, Bobby. She’s clearly still furious at her ad-man husband, Don, for his lies and infidelities. They have an unspoken agreement that allows her to punish Don in a thousand small ways. Yet she can’t quite get to Don, not the way she wants to. So she hurts their son – emotionally, not physically. The little ways in which she tears Bobby down, the way she speaks with him with such contempt (“He’s a little liar”), the way she urges Don to beat some sense into the boy – it’s hard to watch.

The worst part of those scenes is the feeling of dread. It’s hard to escape the foreboding that she’s setting Bobby up to be a very unhappy adult. And her narcissism is breathtaking. To Betty, the children are nothing more than proxies in her ongoing war with Don, and she’s more than willing to sacrifice Bobby in order to gain the occasional advantage over Don.

Perhaps the most bittersweet moment in Episode 4, “Three Sundays,” was the one in which we learned that Bobby’s instinctive sense of compassion hasn’t been extinguished yet. After Don tells Bobby that his own father is dead, the boy said, “We need to find you a new daddy.”

We’re used to characters on this show being unexpectedly cruel to each other. It’s Manhattan, it’s the ad game, it’s life; pettiness and meanness are to be expected. It’s when they are unexpectedly kind that it takes your breath away.

For some, Episode 5, “The New Girl,” was revelatory. I didn’t find it so; we knew that when it counted, Don had been kind to Peggy. But most of what we found out through that episode’s flashbacks were things we’d already known – that Peggy had a baby, that she had mental problems afterward and that Don helped her during that time.

(Having said all that, there were two tantalizing clues in “The New Girl”: Peggy’s sister was heavily pregnant when Peggy was hospitalized, which has led to feverish speculation about the sister’s youngest child -- is he hers or Peggy’s? Also, it was interesting that when Don appeared at her bedside in the hospital, Peggy asked if he was “really there,” which leads to the conclusion that she had some hallucinations around the time that she gave birth. Are there some things we’ve seen in Peggy’s story line that didn’t really happen?)

In any case, the hospital flashbacks offer yet more proof of Peggy’s strength of will. She did as Don instructed her and put the hospital episode, and the child, behind her. One day Peggy may come to regret sealing herself off from the pain of this incident, but for now, like Don, she’s focused only on the future, and on building herself a fortress of independence (Of course, Don’s found out that his fortress is a prison. As a throwaway line in Episode 6 reminded us, the Drapers live in Ossining, the home of the Sing Sing correctional facility).

As a reminder of Don and Peggy’s essential affinity, “The New Girl” worked. Don is horrified when his calculating mistress, Bobbie Barrett, assumes that they are alike. Yet when Peggy addresses Don as an equal, after she bails him out of jail, he is surprised but accepts it. He is like Peggy.

The scary thing about Bobbie is that she’s very close to being like Peggy or Don, but some essential part of her humanity has been destroyed by her transformation from scrabbling hanger-on to comic Jimmy Barrett’s fearsome wife. Even Don has enough sense to recognize that he should avoid becoming what she is.

I suppose the word “sentimental” is not considered complimentary, but I do think that the Carousel scene in the Season 1 was one of the greatest pieces of sentimental writing I’ve ever seen. In his pitch to Kodak executives, Don beautifully evoked the comfort and warmth of the past – a past that, in his case, was almost entirely a fiction (the pictures were real, the peaceful contentment they depicted was a sham).

This season, however, we’re not seeing the Don of the Carousel scene, the Don who was at least a little hopeful about finding both safety and emotional intimacy. This season, Don appears to have given up, somehow.

Those with more focus and more drive aren’t finding the satisfaction that eludes Don. I suppose what makes this season more sad is the fact that there’s more pain to go around. We’re not only seeing Don’s questionable choices, we’re getting glimpses of many different people’s difficulties. Peggy Olson, Duck Phillips, even Pete Campbell’s wife – it’s not that they had it easy last season, it’s just that we’re getting a good long look at the obstacles they all face.

“When you watch this season and you look back at the season before, you will see that there is already the sense that there is an innocence disappearing,” creator Matthew Weiner said in an interview before Season 2 began.

Don’s relationship with Bobbie isn’t the cause of that loss of innocence, but a symptom of it. If I’d hoped that this season would show Don traveling toward emotional honesty, the presence of the cold Bobbie is proof that “Mad Men” is traveling in a different, darker direction.

I can’t say I’m entirely pleased by the amount of time that’s been spent on Don and Bobbie. It’s not that Melinda McGraw hasn’t been competent in the role – she’s been good, but she and Jon Hamm have little or no chemistry on screen. However, the bigger problem is that Bobbie’s defining lack of warmth makes her less compelling than the other people on the show. The more we saw of it, the less interesting her selfishness was. And Don’s coldness around Bobbie stood in marked contrast to the man we saw in Season 1.

When Rachel Menken had drinks with Don in the first episode of Season 1, she calmly explained that saw him for what he was – another lonely outsider who pretended to fit in. He was thrown – visibly shaken – to have been seen so completely. His façade didn’t work when he was around her.

Yet with Bobbie, Don stayed within his tough shell. “I don’t feel a thing,” he says to her just before crashing his car.

His greater alienation is sad and a little surprising, given how tender and vulnerable Don could be with Rachel and the free-spirited Midge. There was something sensual and emotionally inviting about his relationships with those women. And given the way Don opened up to Rachel at the end of Season 1, I thought he’d continue down that path this season – perhaps taking stumbling steps toward real intimacy.

But given Bobbie’s coldness and Betty’s hostility, Don’s more alone than ever. I wonder, is the goal of the show to demonstrate Don’s increasing alienation from others? If that’s the case, well, it’s only Season 2. What kind of shape will he be in two or three seasons from now? It’s a scary thought.

And I’ll be honest; Don’s scenes with Midge and especially Rachel were enjoyably sexy. Don kissing Rachel on that Manhattan rooftop or revealing his innermost secrets to her – those were scenes of powerful sexual and emotional intimacy. When Bobbie is with Don, well, I don’t feel a thing.

But there isn’t much relief from the problem of loneliness this season – for anyone. Don sits at the dinner table with his wife and children and seems completely alone. Recovering alcoholic Duck Phillips, forced to choose between his beloved dog -- the last remaining shred of his otherwise destroyed family life -- and getting ahead at Sterling Cooper, abandons the poor mutt. Duck’s face is study in agony as he walks away from the lobby doors, on his way back to drinking his problems away (kudos to Mark Moses for a wonderfully nuanced portrayal of Duck).

All alone, Peggy must figure out how to be a career woman in an office that considers that phrase an oxymoron. Joan and Bobbie try to offer Peggy advice, but they can’t know what it’s like to be her. Peggy’s passive-aggressive family is even less helpful.

Pete Campbell’s wife Trudy, must fend for herself, emotionally speaking; her husband browbeats her into apologizing for having emotions at all. “What is all this for?” she asks Pete of their marriage. The idea that marriage might be about deep emotional connection doesn’t occur to either of them. They’re living separate lives in the same apartment.

There’s a darkness this season, but I’ve also had the sense that the ground is being laid for some big developments. I’ve had the feeling that, in the first six deliberately paced episodes, Weiner has been laying track, and that there will be some major developments (a la last year’s “5G”) in the second half of the season, as was the case in Season 1.

That’s not to denigrate what’s come so far this year. But I think I’m beginning to understand why some people don’t watch “Mad Men.” It’s not easy to see a mother slowly shred her son; to see men try to reflexively tear down women who assert themselves; to see an essentially decent man gravitate toward that which makes him feel dead inside.

It’s hard to be alive sometimes, and “Mad Men” reminds us of that. Maybe that’s why the show still only has around 1 million viewers per week, despite tons of media coverage and millions spent on ad campaigns.

Despite a quibble here and there – I won’t be sorry if we’ve seen the last of Bobbie and the pace may have been a little too stately here and there – I’ve got no problem with this show. Far from it.

“Mad Men” is doing exactly what it should – it’s doing what “The Wire,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Friday Night Lights” have done at their best. These shows have created people who are so real that their pain is affecting. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/09/mad-mens-second.html

There are some interesting comments at the site!

That's a great article. Thanks for posting it FC!

I also agree that the scene letting the dog go was heartbreaking. But an alcoholic lets nothing stand in their way when they need a drink. So sad.

Personally, I have enjoyed the Bobbie character. She seems like a woman who knows the score pretty well. I think that's why Don is attracted to her.

You are welcome!

I think the actress is doing a good job with the role. In RL I would not like Bobbie at all so that is one reason I think the character bothers me so. Also, like some of the posters who commented at the Trib site stated - I just don't feel any real chemistry between them. For some reason it comes off to me like Don doesn't really like her but sleeps with her for all the wrong reasons. At first it almost seemed like he had to to get her husband to do what they needed him to do.

I am glad the writer brought up that Betty is letting her feelings about Don interfere with her feelings toward her son. I never thought of that!

Sadly, there are people posting there that say they think the show is awful and doesn't deserve all the praise and awards. That makes me feel sad. I find the show truly unique and so well done. They also stated the ratings are really low. I hope they can pick up new viewers after then Emmys. I would hate for the show to not come back. Perhaps with enough critical acclaim they will be in good shape though.

I watched Sun's episode last night with the Mr.
Oh my lord it was good. That last scene with Betty in the new caddy? KILLER. I KNEW she wasn't going to say anything she did one better in my book!

Goodness I just love Sal , he breaks me heart. He is so handsome and I just know he smells good. I am sure they will never let him come out because I would say back then it was almost unheard of. Last season a bunch of the girls on the switchboard had a crush on Sal . I am suprised he got married.

GRR I am mad at Roger what else is new? because he undermined Joan . I do not like Don's new secretary. She is pretty though.

I was not thinking that some people will go looking for the REAL Don Draper. I am sure that is going to figure in more in the plotline.