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. :(
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
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. )
....
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. )
....
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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?
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?
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