Sunday, April 1, 2012

  MAD MEN
   Season 5
   Episode 3

4 comments:

Greg said...

To me 3 things really stood out, and then more:

1. Peggy's hemlines have gotten shorter.

2. Notice how last year Better was supposedly happy but Don was in that dreary, dark, very brown apartment? Betty's new house is very similar, just spacious.

3 Disconnection. While both opposite, Betty and Don however are running a parallel in that they're both feeling that disconnection in their relationships. Remember season1 ep 1 when Rachel in the best scene of the episode tells Don, "I know what it feels like to be disconnected.." Disconnection is a constant running theme of Mad Men. They both have it now.

And I think the whole point and purpose of Betty's med issue was to lay the groundwork, to pour the concrete, of establishing something beginning to connect those two. Again the theme, this side just the flip side of the idea. They just can't write the Betty character out of the show, yet they can't keep going with separate storylines. Something has to happen to make both characters relevant to each other again structurally.

Notice how Don takes Megan on the dinner business deals because she's "shiny and bright"<-- like Don told Betty she has to be for this stuff; while yet Betty is hardly shiny and bright.

Roger is still old school Roger wanting business with drinks etc but at the end he's feeling his own disconnect. Again the theme.

And of course did you catch the comment from Henry Francis on the phone proclaiming "Romney is an idiot" ? Right before Betty finds out it's benign. That's what's so strange about Hollywood, they just can't stop themselves. Obsessive. They can't control it and just say, not now, not here, not Mad Men. Nope, they have to... with everything everywhere. They can't stop themselves. But I'll give them credit because at least there wasn't a Palin slam in there as well so maybe white Hollywood is making slight progress in their obsessive political neurossis in only doing one subversive slam. Golf clap.

Out of curiosity, when Betty comes home from the Doctor, the distant shot of her walking in her home, there's a portrait in the right side of the screen, in dark but pretty obvious. The Francis ultimate matriarch, someone famous or meaningless....?

Betty drinking tea with her friend, the teacup was actually empty.

What did it mean when Roger says to Peggy, "it's darkest before the dawn over there" and nods toward something.... ???

Don working the girl backstage was just like Don in the pilot episode talking to the waiter about his cigarettes.

This episode was so much better than the pilot bc it was so much more business/office wrangling oriented. And it's also setting up something between Don and Betty.

Andrea said...

love your summaries. thanks so much

Greg said...

Thank you Andrea, I keep hearing people read this but no one comments;I hear the AMC site where we all used to chat is so ridiculous that people are looking for a better smaller avenue to chat so I offer my lil thing here..

Rosalie said...

I like how you pay attention to little details. I love your style.