| Welcome to Freshsnarkdaily. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Mad Men | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 25 2013, 11:26 AM (11,102 Views) | |
| Freely | May 21 2013, 09:17 AM Post #226 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Just read Alan Sepinwall's review that Mariah linked to. I love his reviews. He made the point that the cousin Stan lost in the war was the sailor we saw at Don and Megan's party last season. That makes it more poignant to me - that the show introduced this character into the periphery of a show and then he's killed. It looks like Peggy dyed her hair darker. Betty was perfect in this episode with her cutting remarks to Don and Megan about his parenting and saying something about how he says he's at work. |
![]() |
|
| IcyAll | May 21 2013, 11:53 AM Post #227 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yeah, but then she had to complain that the real upsetting thing about the burglar was that Henry was going to run for office and how was this going to affect his campaign? She's a piece of work ... I liked Sally's remark to her when she came to take the kids to the city "Oh, were you under the dryer and you had that revelation?" It's not something a 14-year old would say in 1968, IMO, too adult. But it was funny and spoke to Betty being a blonde again. |
![]() |
|
| WillyWonka | May 21 2013, 12:32 PM Post #228 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I thought the whole burglar thing was just bizarre. Since when do burglar's cook the kids eggs? I think whoever wrote the recap that correlates the show to the Vietnam War is onto something. |
![]() |
|
| Mariah | May 21 2013, 02:22 PM Post #229 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Icy, oh believe me, 14 year olds mouthed off alllll the time. My sister was exactly Sally's age in 1968, and although she dressed more like Wendy I can see her saying exactly that kind of thing to our mom. Now, she may have been slapped for it, or my mother might have laughed, depending on which mercurial mood she was in that day, but that wouldn't have stopped her from saying it. We were fighting so much with adults over Vietnam and race that all sense of "respect" for someone just because they were older was drifting far away. After Bobby was killed, there was even more conflict between the generations. the days of handing them a flower were over. |
![]() |
|
| ranjake | May 21 2013, 07:18 PM Post #230 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
OMG- yes- teenage Girls can be so "Sally". I wasn't, but my Cousin said to her Mom in front of us " Did you set out to be mediocre or did it just happen randomly?" We all laughed our ASSES off about it years later; but at the time- My Aunt got tears in her eyes, and she was a toughie. |
![]() |
|
| Mariah | May 21 2013, 07:32 PM Post #231 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
The show has bee capturing some of the mood shifts. The speed episode did, really well, but I'm almost wondering if you had to be there to connect with that overall mood. After MLK and then Bobby were killed, there was such a massive divide between the generations. Before? We'd hand them flowers and be all peace and love and understanding. After? Hate came out, and terror as so many kids we knew were being shipped off to Vietnam, drafted and just gone, then the massive body counts mounted. They couldn't even vote or drink, but they could be killed in a stupid war so some fat cats could make money. Bobby was "hope" that we could work with the old people and change things. His murder was a nail in the coffin to that whole dream. When McCarthy lost later, so did the remnants of cooperation with adults. The older generation was the idiot enemy, at best disrespected, at most, HATED. SDS took off, demonstrations against the war increased, and kids were expelled for attending one, even on a non-school day. The wars inside of families were a bit like the divide we see know from the religious right and a liberal democrat--only INSIDE the home. The world was nuts, the despair was everywhere, and communication and respect between generations was tenuous at best. Everything felt hopeless and adults were either evil or clueless, or, rarely, got it but were helpless to change much. |
![]() |
|
| WillyWonka | May 21 2013, 09:20 PM Post #232 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
As crazy as things are now in the world I can't imagine living with the draft, where you never knew who was going to be snatched up next. And by then there was TV news with video of what was happening in Vietnam. There was no sugar coating it. |
![]() |
|
| Mariah | May 21 2013, 09:33 PM Post #233 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
No, the blood and guts and burning flesh was on the news every single night. My boyfriend got his draft number--he was number 13. Luckily the draft stopped the following year. I remember throwing up when we heard his number. |
![]() |
|
| weaver | May 22 2013, 06:19 AM Post #234 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
It was very easy to avoid the draft by getting an educational deferment, an employment deferment, or a medical deferment. I don't know one person who served in Vietnam. Everybody got deferrals through one fake scheme or another, it was just accepted as normal. I think more lower class people and Mid west people or people who thought they were being patriotic served. Very unfair, what a shock. |
![]() |
|
| Mariah | May 22 2013, 06:37 AM Post #235 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I think they really started clamping down on deferment excuses as the war went on, especially after they did the lottery. I know one guy who shot his toe off and they kept him in. That's why a lot of people actually did go to Canada, school, marriage, kids, and whatever wasn't cutting it anymore. I have no doubts the seriously wealthy or politically connected had no problem getting out of it. |
![]() |
|
| discomom | May 22 2013, 11:01 AM Post #236 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I remember being terrified that my brothers' numbers would be called. To this day my brother says he won the lottery when his number came up really high. I was still young but I was old enough to understand the talk, mentioning at the dinner table which friends got called up, who wasn't coming home and Walter Cronkite with the blood and gore of Viet Nam in living color. |
![]() |
|
| IcyAll | May 22 2013, 11:49 AM Post #237 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
One of my favorite three-part episodes of QUANTUM LEAP was called "The Leap Home" where "Sam" leapt into himself at age 12 before the war and pleaded with his brother to not go or go stay in a hole on April XX (the day he would be killed) -- the brother promised. But the next leap Sam was in another solider with his own brother that day -- and his brother talked about the promise but that he couldn't do it because everything around them was under water ... he did end up saving his brother, IIRC, a little appeasement to the audience who wanted someone to "come back" ... The best part was when Sam tried to convince his little sister that he was there from the future and she said "sing me something that I've never heard" and he sang John Lennon's "Imagine" ... and the sister was convinced and was terrified because it meant their older brother WAS going to die in the war ... and the parents made Sam say he was making it up to calm her down ... Sorry -- bit of a tangent! |
![]() |
|
| cccharley | May 22 2013, 12:03 PM Post #238 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Tangents are great! I only watched that show every so often so I don't remember the episode although it sounds almost mortifying. Since I know you and I were pretty young Icy we probably don't remember Vietnam so vividly. I'll be honest, until I started to read history and got a bit older the only thing I remember for myself were the bracelets all the older kids were wearing and a few of the younger ones - does anyone remember those MIA or POW bracelets? They were metal with a name on them. Now, years later, it still makes me tear up. I wanted one but never got one. |
![]() |
|
| Mariah | May 22 2013, 03:19 PM Post #239 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I love tangents too, and that was a good one Icy. What the show is doing really well for me is just capturing the mood so well. It didn't really cram it down too much, but especially this last frenetic episode evoked those FEELINGS, but it was subliminal, and it wasn't until I read that Vietnam review that I actually got it. Well, that, and speed killed several of my friends one way or the other. It was a pretty popular drug, especially with the easily available cross top legal diet pills for a while. Betty really peeled off the weight, and I have to wonder if she got a prescription as well. I can't remember when they stopped giving them out to housewives who needed to lose a few like candy. |
![]() |
|
| cccharley | May 22 2013, 03:23 PM Post #240 |
|
Advanced Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Didn't look like Betty lost all the weight. She's not skinny Betty. She's medium blonde Betty. |
![]() |
|
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · TV Drama · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)




4:19 AM Jul 11