DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! newcritics is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

newcritics

the best in web criticism
Jump to original thread »
Author

Trapped in a Rat Pack Suit on a Soundstage, Looking for Grit

Started by tomwatson · 9 months ago

Among true fans of Mad Men, Jon Hamm’s loss at the Emmys was something of a body blow. Hamm’s portrayal of the surly two-faced creative director Don Draper on the early 60s period drama was the favorite going in, a buttoned-up Madison Avenue heir to Tony Soprano - the new ... Continue reading »

34 comments

  • matt weiner

    9 months ago

    You are absolutely right, Mad Men is horrible. Stop watching. Immediately.
    -- Matt Weiner
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    No thanks, Matt - it shows promise.
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    Road trip!
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    They want to do some LA locations - oh, the irony.
    reply
  • James Wolcott

    9 months ago

    OMG, Betty's father is John McCain!

    Or to put it another way,

    OMG, John McCain is Betty's father!
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    Ha - my friends, it's just a little stroke.
    reply
  • randomdeanna

    9 months ago

    wahaha
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    So the team hasn't seen any of Newman's films, but at least they're watching Hitchcock.
    reply
  • James Wolcott

    9 months ago

    I wonder where Betty's family stays in Cape May.
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    Who knows what he does and why he does it - ah, the insight of McCain - and that famous temper.
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    Dad still sharp where it counts.
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    Elisabeth Moss in the Madonna role....quite the advertising tie-in.
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    The episode title is "The Inheritance." Sounds vaguely Henry James-like. Would that the writing was even glancing in that direction.
    reply
  • James Wolcott

    9 months ago

    John McCain's wife looks like Claire McCaskill--now I'm really confused.
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    And January Jones a young Cindy - whoa, he just went for her....
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    You are so right---creepy casting
    reply
  • name

    9 months ago

    Method schmethod. Look at that plaid jacket.
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    the lining is the best part
    reply
  • James S.

    9 months ago

    Was that Douglas Sirk's specter hovering over the scene with January Jones &
    the housekeeper?
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    Is this supposed to be a series of mini-episodes - like sketches - one unconnected to the next?
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    Are Betty's kids ever coming home?
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    Crazy Betty--how did she not pick up the phone the minute she found Glen?
    reply
  • James Wolcott

    9 months ago

    That kid is creeping me out.
    reply
  • James Wolcott

    9 months ago

    Throw his white, pontificating ass off the bus!
    reply
  • chan

    9 months ago

    Maybe he'll get killed by the KKK (in a Marxist sense).
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    Betty giving advice on mothering? Now we're in farce. Oh I don't know where we are--
    reply
  • James Wolcott

    9 months ago

    Maybe this show should simply dispense with dialogue and simply have all of the characters sit/stand around smoking cigarettes.
    reply
  • tomwatson

    9 months ago

    And stare wistfully into an uncertain future....
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    As the light of a new day shines on our anti-hero's face---in a haze of smoke, of course--we can look forward to Don in LALA land next week.
    reply
  • MaPeel

    9 months ago

    Matt is no longer doing the filmed post-game fill-in-the-blanks on the plotting and themes. I'm thinking it would be helpful if those tags came back.
    reply
  • James S.

    9 months ago

    This was an entropy episode, with the story threads falling apart. I'm sure they will stitch it back together next week.
    reply
  • Steve Paradis

    9 months ago

    Want plot? Watch "The Days of the Week". Ditto for dialogue. I don't care anymore. Tableaux vivants based on the ad pages of LIFE and LOOK--with something a little sad around the eyes, like they've been sitting there a bit too long.
    This is Sirkland; they are all staring into the abyss, and looking damn fine doing it.
    I keep hoping Don will come one morning and find Hope Lange manning the desk at his door, white gloves peeping out of her purse.

    Next week? "Duck's off!"
    reply
  • Jim

    9 months ago

    Won't the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy Assassination play a part in upcoming episodes? I remember walking to high school in October 1962 wondering whether I would be alive to come home in the afternoon. And Kennedy's assassination left many of us feeling like we were falling into the abyss, our young father figure murdered. Shaken and shocked. Who knew this was playing itself out earlier in the lives of Don, Betty, and the others. Perhaps Don will go into the music business and have something to do with the Beatles. Perhaps Elizabeth's baby will be adopted by Vincent and his wife. "Honey, the baby looks so much like you, it's scary.
    reply
  • Rosie

    9 months ago

    What is this? Critics are surprised that Jon Hamm lost the Best Actor Emmy to Bryan Cranston and are now trying to justify why he lost by comparing his acting skills - to his detriment - to James Gondolfino? What hell is this? Sometimes, the media really astounds me. And sometimes they are full of crap. Like now.
    reply
Please login to comment.
Returning? Login