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Lord, no. The show is a production designer's dream of certain images of New York, swiped from any number of sources--The Apartment, the early scenes of North by Northwest, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and (for the beatnik sequences) those Lower East Side tenements you'd see in select episodes of The Twilight Zone.
In fact, as I thought about this question, I suddenly realized that the Manhattan of Mad Men was only matched in fakeness by one other version I know--the completely false New York of Kubrick's final catastrophe Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick, however, at least had the excuse that he had spent the last twenty years of his life in England.
The accents on the show drive me nuts. Don Draper doesn't do it, but most of the others do. They're talking like teenagers who are trying to be sophisticated. It's like a bad, fake Engish accent or something.
Back to MSNBC's post-speech analysis till 10. Did you know we are only one of 37 countries fighting in Iraq?
But I do think it's the accents and the emphasis. It's off kilter. Which is strange, because the Sopranos has such a strong regional sense. I mean, why not Johnny Sack as an older ad man?
Are they in Radio City? Does anyone recognize that foyer/lounge?
She wants bright lights not a career
Jackie went to Vassar, not a finishing school but academically rigorous by that time.
lol.
What was that?
BG, I wish you could answer that for so much of this show.
How did they possibly shoot that scene and think that's the way the should've shot it?
Well, that goes for much of the show too.
And, "Theorello"? If it's mentioning Tammany Hall, it's "Fiorello", people.
It hit all the usual "Mad Men" notes and ended right where it began.
I thought Draper and Sterling ignoring the fight and going off to the station was a clever, funny touch.
You optimist, you.
"I didn't think you had it in you, and I mean that." What they did was block Kennedy from buying TV time in the crucial state of Illinois.
And am I wrong, or did Don and Betty have a couple of civilized, sexually-compatible days, due to Betty actually waking up out of her suburban stupor? The psychiatrist only perks up when she perks up, and it's implied that her outburst is the first one she's had in his office.
As for the end, I expected her to drop a plate or a cup, due to shakiness, not accurately sight and fire a pellet gun at the neighbor's pigeons (an act I consider proportionate to his death threat, toward the family dog).
She sees clearly what she wants, while the supposedly clueful Joan, isn't.
"I just realized something... you think you're being helpful." About time, missy.
(Oh, yeah, you're getting that I'm watching the second showing?)
http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/2366...
I didn't think Peggy was really shooting pigeons--that was part of her reverie, yes? The shrink oughtta love that one.
I'm still confused as to how Pete actually turns out to be the smart one in the office. Cause, you know...not bright. I didn't get the ad buy strategy when he said it--and, frankly, I didn't find the Mamie's funeral story half as funny as his buddy did, but then I was never in a frat--but when Roger and Bertram came in it all became clear. And you know what? It WAS a good strategy.
Given Don's own dimness about it, I have yet to understand why McCann-Erickson (or anyone else) wuold court him so aggressively.
I still feel like this show isn't really taking us anywhere, though--that it's a lot of stylistic flourishes and grandstanding, without any there there.
But I did like Don and Roger walking off while the boys were tussling.
cgeye--I also use the CC option, and was confounded by "Theorello" until they mentioned both the exclamation point and Tammany Hall. You might also have caught the captions referring to "BBDO and YNR" instead of BBDO and Y&R.
http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/2481...