MadMen Episode 12 "The End of the World"

MadMen Episode 12 "The End of the World"
Real title: "The Grown-Ups"

Odd way to start the episode...Don and Betty do not appear for about 10 minutes.

Pete gets passed-over in the race for the Sr.VP job. He takes this as being 'fired'.
It is not, but anyone who has been there knows it's code for 'start looking for a new job fast'.

The wedding of Roger's spoiled brat daughter is looming. She complains that the gift Daddy's new wifie gets her is 'TOO NICE'?? We all know what's about to happen anyway.

Pete again, now at home crying to HIS hot wifie. She's actually helpful for once and supports him. Wow, what happened here?

Finally, we see Betty wake up to an empty bed, and figures Don is out screwing around again.
She is pleasantly shocked to find him holding the crying baby. Is there still hope for them?

Next Day, Peggy leaves work to "Go fuck a Duck" (hee hee) again. She's mentally checked out of her job....good bet she will leave soon..but is it wise to sleep with your boss to be?


Then it happens..the JFK assassination that we've known was coming soon, but in this epi. was a big surprise. Everything stops ..it is the 'end of the world' as they knew it for everybody.

Back to Peggy and Duck. After having his sex, he tells her what's going on. What a typical guy!

Back to Pete and Trudy: they decide not to go to the wedding, even though Trudy is already wearing a great dress for it. (we see later that his rival Cosgrove IS there). Bad move Pete.

Now to the now not-so-big Wedding: Roger (who was at his best, imo) gets the few who did come to all sit together....about 1/2 showed up.....the Republicans? (JFK wasn't as popular then as most will have you believe today)
He then goes into the kitchen to find his youngie wifie and most of Sterling & Cooper (Including Cooper) watching the goings on after JFK on TV. There is no wedding cake!! "Go buy a cake" he orders.....uh where?

Then Betty's 'flame' shows up and greets a hot young lady. She calls him "Daddy". She looks familiar, a somebody of someone else? Isn't that her with...Cosgrove? His wife? Maybe why he got the promotion?


Then more and more fallout from 'JFK'. It took over the entire episode. Maybe for all who were not old enough to be there? One uplifting thing..the bride is suddenly much nicer and seems happy for the first time ever....like she finally is counting her blessings.


Don and Betty kiss while dancing...like kissing his sister...dead. More confirmation of this death comes later at home..it's really over for them.


The old saying "Be careful what you wish for". Don is getting just what he wanted...out of love with Betty.....but Suzi Creamcheese won't be there for him...

Nice last touch. Peggy goes to work and shows Don an aquanet ad that looks exactly like the 'dead Kennedy Lincoln' as seen from the 'Zabreuder film' angle. she said it was done beforehand...a foreboding sign?? She thinks it'll be "OK" to use it in a few weeks...uh no it won't...EVER...
Suddenly Peggy seems VERY clueless....her affair with Duck, now this.

Episode ends with Don alone in his office; the song "End of the World" plays....fade out.

Madmen 3.11 "Ghosts of Christmas's Past" (my title)
My other title maybe more appro: "The Shit Hits the Fan"
The real title: "The Gypsy and the Hobo," has lots of parallels as well. Which is Don? Both?

First, Betty does her homework and finds out that 60's divorce laws screw over women. Big changes since then.
Then Don is finally confronted by Betty with the "First Ghost from the Past".
She finally corners him while Sweet Suzi Creamcheese is in the Caddie, waiting, waiting, waiting...to go away for the week.
Man, if i were him, i'd run out the door and drive away, and call Betty from Mystic. She might be toting a vase!
Instead Don faces the music, and retells to Betty, in his broken sentence style, the whole story of his life. Like an AD 'pitch'. Where was the storyboards? If we didn't already know it, it wouldn't have made much sense. Just show her the dog tags already! "This is me....this is the officer i became...."
We feel sorry for him, he gets an Emmy nod for sure. What will Betty do?

Suzi finally walks home near the end of the episode, she really does love him. I was wrong that she was setting up a con on him? She was only worried about losing her job, like i bet she has before in past affairs.

Meanwhile, the 2nd "Ghost of the Past"; we are subjected to a seemingly unimportant subplot of Sterling's old flame that he 'let get away'. She shows up to re-affirm her attractiveness now that she's 50-ish. She's not old "horse-flesh", or even chopped liver! (Get the mention of "The Misfits"? About a 50'ish Clarke Gable and fading Marilyn?)
I'm sure they were telling the story of ALPO dogfood (100% meat!)...that later is a big hit when Ed McMahon sells it on the Tonight Show.
These days she'd be with 20-ish boytoys, just like Sterling is with his 20-ish girltoy. I don't see the point, unless she plays the 'woman scorned' and tries to destroy him for not sleeping with her. His cute dumb wifie has more to worry about from "Pneumatic Joan". cuz: It'll get back to wifie via enemies of his (aka ex-wife), that Sterling has been trying to find a "suitable position" for Joan, who is "expensive", and is his one true love.

Then, in the 3rd sub-plot of the night, we see Joan's loser hubby fail at everything, take it out on Joan, who knocks some sense into him with that vase. No, a ceramic vase would not knock out a guy...that's a movie trick.
He gets the great idea to join the Army (They take everybody; and hey, Elvis did it!) just in time for the big build-up in Viet Nam after JFK gets killed. He's toast....He'll end up in a MASH tent, change his name to "Hawkeye" and get killed in a camp overrun like in "Platoon". So Joan will be single in no time, and will want to come back to S&C, or whatever it turns into after the Brit's sell it to Duck Co.

It ends with the parents taking the kids trick or treating, dressed as The Gypsy and the Hobo, Don is dressed as a "respectable business-man on his way to work" and looks foolish in that causal setting.

Sure wish Madmen had a full season of 24 episode a season..it's been great, and as it's finally getting down to it..and it almost over. :(

Madmen Episode 10 "The Color Blue"

Blue; as in a "Blue Movie"? "Blue" as in 'sad'? A lot of new unhappy developments start unfolding.

Don is totally addicted to Suzanne now....he can't stay away. Notice how she has become more beautiful in each episode and more defined and refined. ...
She looks like a young Barbara Hershey to me, and a little remembered 40/50's actress, Jeanne Crain (whom I loved from old movies).
Now the 'trap' is sprung...she makes Don meet her 'brother' Danny. He falls right into it and helps him out, as a way to 'pay back' his real brother. Don gives him cash, and we see his 'cash stash' at home...looks like $1,000's bundled into neat stacks. (what he saved at Geico?)
I think this is a "Long Con" worthy of a Sawyer set-up; "make them think it was their idea". It's so good, I wonder if they knew about Don's real family already or are related to them.
Cliff-hanger #1..Is it real love, or is it a Con-Job?

Meanwhile, back at the S&C ranch, we get a long, seemingly pointless turn by 'beatnik' Paul. He gets a 'great idea" re. Western Union while chatting with Achilles the janitor. (to use a Greek God as a symbol? didn't FTD do that with Mercury?) He gets drunk and forgets it. We see Peggy save his ass again and show that he is very expendable. Who was that drunk that got fired last year...i already forgot?

Layne is told by the Brit Bosses that S&C is for sale after he worked so hard to make it more profitable. The news excited his homesick for London wife. Layne knows it will mean getting sent to "the Black Hole of Calcutta". I bet he bails and goes along with S&C and stays in NYC.
This sets up Cliff-hanger #2..."Who will buy Sterling & Cooper?"
Don himself is my guess. (with Connie Hilton's money, and my original prediction to become boss) Duck Co. is another good bet.

The Drapers get a mysterious phone call...before the day of robo-call ads. Who was it? Suzanne doesn't really deny it. A subtle reminder to Don "I know where you live"?
It wasn't Betty's BF? Then Betty finds the key to and opens Don's secret stash drawer. She doesn't seemed surprised by the cash, but looks threw the cigar box.
She sees the 2 sets of "Army Dog Tags" that would tell the whole story, but that doesn't seem to click for her. She looks at all the old photos of his real family. She sees the deed to the Mrs. Draper house in Long Beach (San Pedro, Ca.) and the marriage license...so not the divorce papers(?)
Cliff-hanger #3...will Betty figure it all out, and what will she do about it? The previews show her packing to leave...I bet to go to CA to meet the 'other Mrs. Draper'.


It ends with the big party for S&C's 40th anniversary. Betty's icy-cold stare, Layne's knowing dread...all so blue. What Don says doesn't matter. He's not looking too good right now. (the still pics on the AMC site show many more shots of all the S&C'rs at the party..they seem to have been edited out of the final cut. ) ....

Mad Men#9 review: "Wee Small Hours"

Finally a fitting title for an episode.
It starts off with a 'wet dream' of a sexy seduction of Betty...then it turns out to be Don's dream!
He does still love her? Or was it Betty's dream? Don woke up, not Betty??? I'm not sure.

Then we get to watch Don's descent into 'client Hell' as Conrad Hilton takes over his life, calling him at all hours of the night like Dracula summoning one of his minions. He seems to love it..at least Betty thinks so.

First CH treats him like his long lost Son, then like a hated in-law. What a nut-job, like another Howard Hughes. Makes me want to read up on CH, who just died last year, leaving his family members 'chump change' compared to what he had saved. He left Paris $2 mil.; not bad, but he had $100's of mil's. I think he was known to 'date' lots of movie stars in the 50's and 60's. Will he hit on Betty?

Then we get treated to more '60's Homo in the Closet fun' as poor Sal gets hit on by S&C's biggest client from Lucky Strike. Should he have just 'done him'? Everyone loses on this. To tell or not to tell? a no-win for sure. Sal finally does the right thing to tell Don, but too late. He gets fired in an attempt to keep Lucky's account. Did you ever see the movie "Crusin'"? Sal is at a gay pick-up park in Grennich Village when she calls his wife. Did ya see the "Leather Biker Boy" in the background?

Betty gets her big chance to screw her 'Silver Fox', but doesn't??? Is the 'chase' more fun than the capture in 'Fox hunting'? She acts like a spoiled little girl all the time now, like when HE doesn't show up at her 'event'.

Civil Rights is-a-comin'! Will the black maid quit on the Drapers? Will she get an Afro and picket their house? Reminds me of that fine Whoopie film where she plays the same type of maid in the 60's suburbs. (she ends up marrying Ray Liotta)

My early prediction of Don screwing the 'hippie-dippy' teacher finally came true. It was kinda weird..she is passive aggressive....while she hates him for wanting her and belittles him... she does it anyway with relish. It's clear they both have done this before. Don calls her "that kind of girl" (code for slut?) The epi. ends with them in bed, finally having had sex. The end-song was esp'ly fitting too. (Her name is Suzanne...the title of a famous Leonard Cohen song of the time.)

But before that, the big climax scene is Don doing 'his thing' at S&C for Conrad. He brilliantly pitches a new Hilton Hotel ad campaign (that I'm sure was a real one). Just another day for Don, he earns HIS keep. Unexpectedly, CH clears the room and berates Don for 'not putting Hilton on the Moon', as he had asked for (in a way that made it seem like a metaphor for 'hitting it out of the park', etc.).
WTF???? is CH crazy? or.....
It seemed to me that CH just wanted free ad service, (as he said in the beginning of his courting of Don.) By acting dis-satisfied, he keeps Don's work w/out paying the bill. (common in the bus. world)

Then '5th wheel/off the flow-chart' Roger Sterling berates Don for screwing up their 2 biggest clients in one week. thus leading up to:
======================================

My end of season Predictions for Mad Men!

1. My early one of Don nailing 'Miss Hippie' came true..1 for me.

2. My other early one of Don will leave S&C to start his own agency is looking good...but...
I amend it to something close but more logical...

2B. The Brits will fire/remove/retire the dead weight of Sterling and Cooper. (They were after-thoughts on the organization chart already, and note that NO-ONE reported to them on it.)
The "My Left-Foot is Left" guy is gone, who was to be a co-head of S&C...so....

They will then hand over the agency to Don and it gets re-named Draper & Assoc. or something. They DO have a 3 year deal for him already.....he has to honor it...for chump-change compared to what a Co. Head would earn...(maybe their plan all along?)

Maybe not until the start of next season:
3. Joan, the smartest Sec'y in the world comes back. Sal will get re-hired. Pete gets fired...goes to Duck Co. to be an enemy to Don & Co. London Fog takes off...everything at Don Co. seems...well just 'Ducky'.

4. Peggy (where HAS she been?) will not leave Don, but becomes an unwitting spy for Duck Co. as she keeps sleeping with him. Peggy gets preggers again, by "Go-Fuck-a-Duck".

5. Pete gets caught cheating by his wife, she leaves him, cutting off the big bucks of her family.

6. We know Sterling's kid has set her wedding the day after the JFK killing...my bet it's the season ending episode....He's so insensitive; they still have it, but no-one comes to it is my guess.
He may even have a stroke at it...a good cliff-hanger to see if he survives...or if anyone cares. I bet his young wifie bails on him.

7. Any fling as close to home as Don and Miss Hippie is going to get found out. It does, and Betty leaves and/or throws out Don again....the cliff-hanger is...will it be for good this time?

One-Minute Reviews: "ABC's Desperate Wednesdays"

One-Minute Reviews: "ABC's Desperate Wednesdays"
3 new shows premiered last night:
9:00PM was the premiere of "Modern Family" (aka: Wisteria Lame). This show was close to un-watchable.
It used the same stupid Drama Device of "breaking the 4th wall" and talking to the audience as "The Office". It was as unfunny as "The Office", but with less likable characters.

Filled with decades old show-biz stereotypes of 3 families: "The Old Codger" and the "Chatty Latin Spitfire" (Coochie-Choochie!).
The "Midwest's vision" of "The Gay Couple"; (One was a copy of the Interior Designer in Beetlejuice).
Last and least: "Normal Family" with "Emasculating Wifie", "Spaced-out Lame Dad", and " Always Embarrassed Horny Teen Daughter".
At the end, (if you got that far) they turned out to be an extended family, all related to each other. Snoooze...
The biggest question? Ed, how did you let yourself go so badly?
Prognosis: It won't last to the end of Oct., but will ED? It's so bad it could drag down the next 2 shows with it.

9:30PM "Cougar Town"; (aka Desperate House Cats) Courtney Cox's new sitcom.
Made by the same team as Scrubs is not a glowing reference,
but it is produced by Courtney Cox, who did her own under-achieving show on cable the last 2 years.
This show was surprisingly great. Really very funny without trying too hard, very witty, lots of sexy double-entendres and situations. The funniest, sexiest show since 2 1/2 Men.
Add a little "R" rated action, and it could be a hit HBO show.
It was well executed in every way. Courtney makes lots of fun of her own character, and of Cougars in general and the guys who "date" them.
And it doesn't pull punches re. the effect mid-aged singles 'hooking up' has on their families.
Like in her last series, she appeared 2 times in VERY sexy outfits, showing she still has lots of "IT".
She was the HOT Friend, and still is..
I know Middle-aged housefrau's will not let their hubbies watch this, it is too sexy, too funny in smart ways, and being after "Modern", it will fail too.
Prognosis: Tape it and save it...it's a collector's item.

10:00PM "Eastwick" (aka Desperate House Witches). Did ANYONE EVER see a promo of this show? I never saw one.
Slipped in like a ugly step-child, this turned out to be a total happy surprise. So far, it's my new favorite show of the season.
Loosly based on the old book "Witches of Eastwick" (Or, the movie with Jack Nickolsen as the Devil).
Again, it's well written, witty, sexy fun, produced beautifully on location, big screen movie-like.

The 3 witches are lovable and subtly sexy, led by Rebecca Romjin (Hippie-Chick),
Lindsay Price (News-Girl Friday), both of past failed shows,
and an unknown redhead (the Kindly Nursie) who is the best actress.
The "hook" is that the 3 don't know they are Witches yet, so maybe taken from the start of the book.
It's fun to see them 'evolve' as they realize their 'powers'. It's real fun to see Lindsay show up in a poured on dress late in the show. WOW!

They do not seem to be copies of the 3 in the movie. (closer to the book?)
The small N.E. town (it looked Star's Hollow?) is full of ex-ABC stars like "Almost Perfect" girl, Sarah Rule; and "Kyle-XY", as a boy-toy.
The only weak link is the guy who plays "Jack The Devil". He is too young and unmemorable to fill Jack's shoes. (a soap star?)
I'm sure he was hired to up the "Beef Factor" of the show.
Prognosis: It's too good, too subtle, no bloody bodies like all those 10pm Police Propaganda shows..it will fail.

MadMen episode 5 "Time Bombs"

Mad Men in a New York Minute:
MadMen episode 5 "Time Bombs"
(real title "The Fog")
In dramas, a 'time bomb' is a plot device or character that is introduced innocently,
then later suddenly becomes a important key part of the plot.

1. Is Sally in trouble at school or is Suzanne, her barefoot spinster teacher, just wants to see Don again?
Later she calls Don at home. She's been drinking, she's alone, her slip strap is loose, her blouse is unbuttoned! OMG!! My time bomb prediction is now ticking! Or is that her bio-clock?
Don says "nobody" called instead of saying 'that crazy teacher'. He'll follow up on that later.

2. Don mentions London Fog again, and how he's going to target the kid and teen markets. Another time bomb now ticking. This really did happen in the 60's. L.F. made a fortune making windbreaker jackets in many bright colors. Teens had to own several at once. Fonzie even wore them in S1 Happy Days. Long before "Members Only" came along.

3. Duck Phillips, now at a Jewish ad agency, sets off 2 time bombs. Peggy and Pete. He invites them to lunch. He fills Peggy's head with woman's lib phrases like: "It's your time"....Yeah, to plant the seeds of discontent so she will demand too much and get fired, or quit...that's his real plan. Then he can be a 'white knight' and hire her. Remember his speech about how expendable creative types are? He's no Mr. Nice Guy!
Pete is brought there to witness his lunch with Peggy, no other reason. Later, Peggy starts 'her bomb ticking' at Don with her "It's MY Time!"...to blow-up.
Pete will 'blow-up", and tattle tail on her, as planned.

4. At the Hospital waiting room. Don befriends prison guard Dennis. He seems real nice. Prison guards are not nice. Oh the Irony. Long drawn out scene, seems to be to tell Don to stop blaming his parents.

Dennis is worried about the "Breech Birth", which could kill both. Nurse Mousie comes out to tell Dennis his wife and baby are OK.
Later, Don passes Dennis wheeling his wife down the hall. Holding a bundled up baby, or still pregnant?? Dennis looks up at him, no acknowledgment at all. Maybe all is not OK? Don smiles, looks puzzled. Did that waiting room scene even happen...was it Don's dream? Did Don foresee what will happen with Dennis and wife?

5. Betty is dosed up..now in a "Twilight Sleep"? (or Twilight Zone?) She is dressed as Grace Kelly, walking down her street, holding a green caterpillar. Then she's at home. Dead Daddy is mopping the floor with blood. Dead Mom is next to a black man who is blind. Real "LOST" stuff here. Was she close to death?
She wakes up holding baby..now 'Eugene' for Daddy. A time bomb of trouble with baby to come?

6. Why does Black worker 'Hollis' buy an RCA vs. an Admiral TV? Blacks are buying Admirals. They were the cheaper brand. Sold in stores in ghetto neighborhoods, like Woolworth. So it was an obvious reason that escaped Pete. Hollis got an RCA cuz he's "upwardly mobile", and works outside the ghetto. It's the 'status brand'.
Time bomb of the birth of "Racial Marketing". The bigot exec's at Admiral don't like it, but know it.

7. The Limey boss, who is not a bigot, can see the wisdom of it...Hey the Beatles and Stones got famous singing Black R&B. The Brits made blacks cool to white kids, and OK to their parents.
If not for TV's, then how about for Cadillac's and Malt Liquor? Colt45 is still getting bad publicity for being marketed to blacks in ghettos today. Ask Billy Dee Williams.

8. Last scene. Baby Gene cries at night. Betty gets up to go to it...stops and hangs her head..in dread? Post-Natal depression? Is it even Don's baby? Who is Scott, baby's middle name?

In The previews: Again my prediction is ticking loudly. Sterling waves "Bye-Bye" to Don.

Episode 3: "The Cast's Hidden Talent's Show"

Episode 3, Aug. 30th
"The Cast's Hidden Talent's Show"

The Bill O' Fare:

Sterling sings in Black-face!

Don Draper mixes a great Old Fashioned!

Peggy gets smokes pot and gets creative!

Paul gets stoned and sings and recites poetry...badly.

Pete (& his barren wife) dances the Charleston!
(can Dancing with Stars be far off?)

Betty (Don's wife) flirts...again...even while 8 months preggers!

Joan, the Pneumatic Sec'y, plays the accordion and sings in French!
Eww Laa Laa!!
( I wonder if she plays on some older show she was in,
and this was a 'wink' to it?)

The ending: Don pisses off his boss by telling the truth.
My prediction of him leaving and starting his own Agency
is looking better and better.

Mad Men 1 minute review Epi. 4..."Over There"

Mad Men 1 Minute Review
Epi 4; Sept. 6th,"Over There"
(my title, Real Title is "The Arrangements")

Pops Gene teaches little Sally to drive his "Dead Kennedy" Lincoln.

(she's about 10, would Don approve?)

Peggy want to "Take Manhattan". To get 'over there', and away from Mom's
pounding for giving up the baby.
Later, Peggy buys Mom a new TV, but both know it's 'Over' for them.

An Idle Rich-son pitches Jai-Lai to the firm.
(Jai-Lai did happen back then, just before the "World Soccer League" that also died fast)

Betty smokes while preggers;
she gets upset at Pops for pushing the "reality" of his coming demise on her.
Does she wants being preggers to be 'over'?

Closet-bound Sal is tapped to direct the "Bye Bye Birdie" rip-off ad.
He's Very excited.

Later while trying to avoid sex with his (SMOKIN' HOT)
confused wife; he acts out entire song.
Now Wifey totally understands...that was the Gayest Ad ever!
Now he's really gone 'over there'.

Pops has gone totally rouge now,
he gives little Jimmy his Prussian WWI helmet, openly defying Don.

Don pulls out an old pic of his Dad and Mom.
See, having Pops around is helping him with his own past; to get 'over it'.

Kolie is afraid of Kourtney getting herpes...what sluts.
Oops, switched channels awhile :)

"Margret" Peggy Olsen looks for a roomie.
Gets Pep talk from know it all Joan to 'fun-it-up'.
Later meets Perky Kute Karen in a yellow dress (symbolic?) Real Don-Bait.

More Jai-Li account fun....just take the money and run Don.
Pete is up for it, as he brown-noses 'Limely-boss'.

Then the 'Bye Bye' ad is shown; it's perfect,
but far too sexy....they took the money and ran....into a ditch..
Peggy smirks knowingly. She had said "clients don't know what they need".
Sterling states the obvious.."it's not Ann Margret!" It's 'over' for Patio diet cola.

Suddenly it's announced Pops dies off screen in an A&P market.
Buying Ice Cream?
His missed his big scene, Was it cut?

The Family seems more relived than in mourning.
Little Sally hears laughter and freaks.
At least she loved the old coot.

Don puts away Pop's roll away bed...bumps a record player...
it plays "Over There"..
Pops has now "gone over" to "There".
It's over for Pops and the WWI generation.