r/madmen

Jon Hamm visits the Criterion closet, as John Slattery did recently. Some very diverse and interesting picks here. From Jim Jarmusch to Pixar. Seen in cinemas! Don would approve.

On rewatch I’m trying to separate “Don is drinking while working” from “Don actually screws something up because of drinking.” See, early on he’s basically always drinking (like everyone else) but he still lands accounts and pulls off pitches and decides to "steal a buisness" and . . .it all works out for him quite well. Even the totally smashed Life cereal pitch actually works out in the end, right?

So I’m wondering: what’s the first clear moment where alcohol directly leads to a bad business outcome for Don? Not just messy personal stuff, but something that actually hurts a client, a pitch, or the agency or himself? Is it later (Season 4+ when things start slipping), or is there an earlier example I’m forgetting?

Holy cow. Season 5 was a masterpiece and probably my favorite season so far (Seasons 3 & 4 are close seconds).

They finally signed Jaguar (probably all because Joan agreed to it). Also it was nuts that Joan went for the hookup BEFORE the pitch, that was a crazy twist. Now with Megan acting again, it’s clear Don will be going back to his old ways. Don will probably keep hallucinating his brother now. Betty was cruel to tell Sally about his first wife, also hope the Weight Watchers is going well for her. Sally and Glen are finally growing up. Peggy is probably killing it at the new firm. Ginsburg might be the new Don/Peggy protege (I know him from Superstore lol). Who knew Ken would be such a good writer? Megan’s surprise birthday performance was iconic. Pete getting involved with the train buddy’s wife. (Maybe with that new apartment he might see her more often?)

The LSD episode was probably the craziest episode so far. Roger taking it and changing his life, while you think Don left Megan and she got kidnapped/killed.

Just when I was starting to like Lane Pryce, very sad. (Cmon Don, you’ve made exceptions for other people but not him??). RIP.

Lane and Pete fighting in the office, Joan and Army-Boy breaking up while they bring out the accordion player, Kinsey joining the cult, the list goes on.

I’m forgetting so many memorable moments in the season, but can it get even better with two seasons to go?

Will there be a new intro? Will they keep doing 13-episode seasons? (The perfect length, btw) Will Season 6 live up to the hype?

Prediction: Don’s past will have to come to light, eventually. Do Don and Joan hookup? Do Don and Peggy hookup? Will Don rise to the top of the advertising world or will he crumble?

The title really. I’ve watched many good series with Jon Hamm (Fargo is a favorite, also loving Your Friends & Neighbors atm), and Elizabeth Moss is impeccable in The Handmaids Tale. John Slattery is of course a fenomenal actor and I’ve seen him in movies and some series like SATC, Veep and Mrs. American. I can also think of Alison Brie in Glow but not many more…

Are you guys more into film & TV than I am? What are your must-watchs with the MM cast?

How could these dudes function when they were drinking that much.

Was the 60s all about getting drunk at work and cheating on your wife?

That’s all

Here is my take on Sally after her mother's death in the spring of 1971 and her HS graduation in June 1972:

Part I:

Sally Draper has her feminist awakening at Smith College through reading Betty Friedan, engaging in political activism and joining consciousness raising groups. She agitates for the creation of a women’s studies program.  She celebrates Smith getting the nation’s first female college president. Even as Sally gets involved in activism, she is also a strong student who graduates cum laude, majoring in Psychology and minoring in English. Sally builds her writing skills through work for the school newspaper and literary magazines.  She wins a prize for a poem she wrote about trying to understand her mother.

She moves to the Village after graduating in 1976 and spends a few years writing free-lance for various women’s magazines, including Ms., Cosmopolitan, Playgirl, and Glamour. Later, she is especially proud of covering the 1977 Women’s National Convention for McCall’s. During these days, she sleeps around quite a bit (including some minor celebrities), drinks heavily, and does cocaine. Don and Henry are both happy to fund her lifestyle and don't ask too many questions.

Grateful for the insights therapy has given her, she goes back to school in 1979 to get a master's degree in psychiatry. While studying at Penn, she meets Eric Grassi, who is getting an MBA. They marry and move to NYC, where he prospers in the Wall Street of the 1980s and she develops a practice attending to the neuroses of the Upper East Side. She gains a reputation for attending to the rich offspring of narcissistic parents. She has a couple of kids, who eventually go off to boarding school and are not especially close to her. She no longer does cocaine but still drinks a lot. Despite the usual Wall Street egomania, Eric is an attentive and loving husband, so Sally inevitably has several affairs, including one with a moderately famous novelist who includes a character modeled on her in his next book. Already ambitious for the spotlight, she networks hard in liberal politics (she sees Stan and Peggy occasionally) and the usual charities. In 1991, she pulls some strings (the writer is a Smith alum) to be quoted in a New York Times Magazine article on dealing with difficult parents.