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Live-Blogging Mad Men: Here Is New York?

Started by tomwatson · 11 months ago

Earlier today on another blog far, far away Blue Girl suggested that the last episode of Man Men (the best in my opinion) reminded her of far away New York and made her wish she was here. I didn’t see it - even the famed “New Amsterdam” episode (the only o ... Continue reading »

65 comments

  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    Does Mad Men get New York?

    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.
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    Don't give my opinion too much weight. An apple sitting on my kitchen counter can get me missing NYC. So, when the one character was talking about riding the train into the city everyday, I got a little melancholy.

    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?
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Yeah Jim, they're borrowing from those old design settings. But hell, in NxNW, Hitchcock shot in New York - outside the UN (which he had to sneak in, lacking permission), inside the Plaza, inside Grand Central and even the background shots on the train up the Hudson were accurate.

    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?
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    37, huh? Is one of the others the ALQadeans?
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Well, for instance - there are Americans and Democrats, so that's two of the 37 right there.
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  • Claire Helene

    1 year ago

    God! Why does this show have to be so heavy handed right off the bat! The little girl holding her heart as the doves were released... geez.
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    The Birds and Grace Kelly--so looking for greatness by association.

    Are they in Radio City? Does anyone recognize that foyer/lounge?
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Grace Kelly from Philly a "European face" - ha!
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Not RC, MA
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    "The Birds" - an obvious reference the the, aha, 1960 Hitchcock film.
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  • ghosh

    1 year ago

    Grace Kelly lite. Petting? By 1960 it was "making out".
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    30-something, anyone?...Miles Drentell...Michael?
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    "I was a model, you know" is this episode's "Chip 'n' Dip."
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Prostitute...whore-child, it all comes together!
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Now we're in the "Make Room for Betty Show"
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Steve - good one. He was a whore-child, then he married one!
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Oh Pete, we have news for you . . . .
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Peggy's pregnant. With a whore-child.
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  • ghosh

    1 year ago

    Betty is not Betty Friedan material.
    She wants bright lights not a career
    Jackie went to Vassar, not a finishing school but academically rigorous by that time.
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  • Claire Helene

    1 year ago

    Oh god. Peggy probably is pregnant. ACK! This show KILLS me.
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Wow. I really had a Barbie with a dresss like that.
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    At least Barbie could act...
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    That was the longest set-up (mamie's funeral) for the smallest pay off yet.
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    I am completely baffled by Pete's brilliant strategy.
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    In the ad business that sort of strategy is known as the "chip n dip"
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    Prostitute…whore-child, it all comes together!

    lol.
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Michael Beirut--are you in the house? Can you explain the lighting bolt from Pete?
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    Thank you, Tom, that explains everything.
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Gosh, if Peggy had only had a spare bottle of that cola around the apartment that night with Pete, maybe she wouldn't be splittin' her seams...
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Now the bird thing is looking waay too Sopranos
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  • ghosh

    1 year ago

    You wanna shoot the golden?
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Nixon - the fallen dove - the rifle - Pete as Lee Harvey - it's all leading to the Kennedy assassination.
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Peggy looks bigger in every scene--rapidly advancing pregnancy. Hey, that's what happened to Darla when she was pregnant with Pete, I mean Connor. (Angel fans, where are you>)
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  • Claire Helene

    1 year ago

    Very nice, MA. :)
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Maybe I'm just tired, but this is a very slow episode.
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Tom, it does feel like we are in the second hour of a double episode
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    It *is* extremely slow.
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    MA, vampire spawn is different than whore-child.
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Indeed, Tom. Glacially incremental movement in the lives of people we have not come to love.
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  • Tom Watson

    1 year ago

    Exactly Steve - less interesting than my own office life.
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Hey - easy on the fine folks in your office, Tommy!
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  • ghosh

    1 year ago

    Didn't Peggy get birth control in the first episode?
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Drop you at the station - finally - a glimmer of wit!
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  • Claire Helene

    1 year ago

    Poor Betty.
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    "Fill the pool"?!?
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  • steverino

    1 year ago

    Lee Harvey Draper
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  • ghosh

    1 year ago

    Best ending yet. You are my special angel, great song.
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    Is it wrong of me that I genuinely enjoyed that sudden lurch into David Lynch territory?
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  • Claire Helene

    1 year ago

    The show needs to pick a genre and go with it.
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    I thought of David Lynch too. Is it wrong? Who knows. The show's so slow that when *anything* happens, we're all so grateful.
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  • M.A. Peel

    1 year ago

    Nice last shot. She was a little Bonnie Faye Dunaway there. But the texture feels like it's from a different show
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    Was it supposed to be funny or something that when the guys were knock down drag out fighting, the two shmoes didn't even care at all and then just walked out?

    What was that?
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  • Claire Helene

    1 year ago

    What was that?

    BG, I wish you could answer that for so much of this show.
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    So there's no *deep* meaning?

    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.
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  • Jim Tourtelott

    1 year ago

    Actually, I thought Draper and Sterling ignoring the fight and going off to the station was a clever, funny touch.
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  • ghosh

    1 year ago

    Blue girl-anger management was not invented yet. For white men with anger issues allowances were made. But this was just absurd.
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  • cgeye

    1 year ago

    The closed captioning is so freaky that the first character of each line is dropped.

    And, "Theorello"? If it's mentioning Tammany Hall, it's "Fiorello", people.
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  • -k-

    1 year ago

    In light of last week's show, this one was such a disappointing clunker.

    It hit all the usual "Mad Men" notes and ended right where it began.
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  • blue girl

    1 year ago

    Jim,

    I thought Draper and Sterling ignoring the fight and going off to the station was a clever, funny touch.

    You optimist, you.
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  • cgeye

    1 year ago

    Oh, yeah -- ANGEL fans reprazent!!
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  • cgeye

    1 year ago

    "One day I've got to take a picture of her crying." Every left turn, this sadism/sociopathy peeking out.

    "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).
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  • cgeye

    1 year ago

    And, as for Peggy? YAY.
    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?)
    reply
  • Dan Leo

    1 year ago

    Well, I picked a good night to get back late from the gym. I watched the 11 PM broadcast (hey, if it's cable, is it still a broadcast?), and I'll tell ya I woulda had a helluva time trying to come up with clever live-blogging remarks for this episode. But it's cool, we've still got Kristin Ament's re-cap to look forward to. Here's the great one she did of last week's show:

    http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/2366...
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  • Karen

    1 year ago

    Tristan--yes, Peggy got birth control in the first episode, and then had sex THAT NIGHT. It takes at least one cycle for the Pill to become effective. So, odds are she got knocked up by Pete.

    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.
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  • Kristin Ament

    1 year ago

    Karen, I think the reason none of us think the collegiate story about the dead dog in the wagon was funny is because we, unlike the guys at Sterling Cooper, aren't sitting around getting shitfaced all day. Really, do those guys do any work at all? And now I don't think Peggy's knocked up. All of her weight's in her ass. I finally have my snarky recap up, after having the last several days be one big musical salute to intestinal distress. It was a crap episode.
    http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/2481...
    reply
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