Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
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:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Mad Men
Topic Started: Jan 25 2013, 11:26 AM (11,093 Views)
Mariah
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Great episode. So much crammed in but nothing felt rushed.

Yay! I was right about Bob faking his life just like Don did. I expected a different reveal, but oh well. ;) /minor and annoying gloating...but YAY!

Loved Sally and Betty, and Miss Porters! I wonder if Chevy is pissed at MM? So happy Ken lived! Don actually kind of saved both Ted and probably future business issues there at the end. LOVED Peggy though, and Joan getting it. Such a perfect little episode.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-ryan/mad-men-recap-bob-benson-the-quality-of-mercy_b_3448599.html?utm_hp_ref=arts&ir=Arts
Edited by Mariah, Jun 17 2013, 12:31 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IcyAll
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
I felt bad for Don at the end. I wanted to slap Peggy for her attitude.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
weaver
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
IcyAll
Jun 17 2013, 04:38 AM
I felt bad for Don at the end. I wanted to slap Peggy for her attitude.
Yeah, Peggy is acting like a schoolgirl. I wonder if she can get the Clio now that Don said it was Chaough's partner's idea........hehe. Is Don just a teeny bit jealous?

Loved the whole episode. I just don't buy the Bob Benson thing. When I started interviewing, companies were very strict about checking your references. Now with Don it was plausible, it was an earlier time and the company was small. Now its a big player, or sorta big, and I'm not sure Bob would pass muster.

Sally is an unbelievable actress, she got everything just right. Loved her scenes. Glen is Weiner's son, right? He is a lot cuter than in his earlier days. Sally is just like Don, she can lie with a straight face, keeps things to herself, etc., risk taking, cagey and of course, gorgeous.

Haven't read any reviews yet, I'm still mulling things.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IcyAll
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
According to Maureen Ryan, Peggy cannot get a Clio now that the idea has been given to a dead man. But who would talk? The client would want that win on their account.

Something that I thought: Betty says to Sally "I'm sure your father has given you a taste of beer." ... with a smirk. I think Betty's father did that with her and she, absorbed in her memories of her own youth and wanting to go to Miss Porter's, is thinking everything for Sally is the same.

Yeah, that kid is not attractive. And he doesn't have to be. But I also didn't think he was a good actor when he had all those scenes way back in Season 2? ... but he's the writer's kid, so he's gonna keep popping up. I was thrilled that they didn't put a romantic spin between Glen and Sally, but had him say "she's like a sister to me!" That kid Rolo looked familiar. I need to look him up on imdb.


ETA: IMDB doesn't have that information yet. But I found this review: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bthesite/tv-lust/bal-mad-men-recap-the-quality-of-mercy-20130617,0,614434.story?page=2

AND was reminded, because he says the whole Ken and the hunters shooting his eye out was reminiscent of "A CHRISTMAS STORY" ... but to me, it evoked memories of Tobias Wolff's great short story "Hunters in the Snow" from his incredible collection IN THE GARDEN OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS. In that story a hunter shoots another hunter and while they're taking him to the hospital, loaded into the bed of the truck in the snow, they forget he's there and drive slowly, giving each other sympathy for their terrible lives. The whole "they wanted to stop for lunch" reminded me of that.
Edited by IcyAll, Jun 17 2013, 04:11 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
weaver
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
I vaguely remember Tobias Wolfe's story. His brother wrote a great memoir of their father, who was a con artist.

Yeah, I suspect the agency could get a Clio............everyone would want it. Course Peggy would still have a sour taste in her mouth, good. Don was so good in that scene.

I just don't get the point of Bob Benson. So he is a fake, like Don was a fake. How does this justify introducing the character in the next to last year. To me, he has added next to nothing to the show, except we have learned a bit more about Pete.

Poor Ken, I hope he gets a decent account after this Chevy debacle. I wonder if that was the real reputation of the Chevy yahoos in 1968? At least Ken still has his foot and still has his eye.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Cosmocrush
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
This post got 89 well deserved "likes" on that other forum. If anyone remembers the early days of South Park you'll like it too.

Quote:
 
Oh my God! They almost killed Kenny! Those bastards!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IcyAll
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
LOLOLOLOLOL ... I wonder if the guy who plays Kenny was worried they'd kill him off some day just for that joke!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
weaver
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
I always want more Ken! At least he got some time to showcase his comic talents with that dance this year. Less Bob, more Ken please.

Jon Hamm with the baby "waah, waah" was brilliant.........what an actor he is.

Am I wrong or was the Weiner kid not in the credits. I watched the credits to make sure it was he, and didn't see his name. Was too lazy to rewind and rewatch, especially as my rewind function my TWC box never works properly. He did an OK job with the part.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mariah
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
One of my favorite things about this show is all of the thoughtful reviews out there the next day or two. I get the feeling me linking them here is annoying, so I haven't done that this week. That said, they are out there and I really love how many talented writers review this show. Each brings something different, but that's part of why I really love this show. Slate always does 3 reviews and this week Hanna brought up all of the Shakespeare allegories.

One reviewer perfectly captured (for me) what Don did in that meeting. Yes he was a dick, but he also pulled Ted back from the brink of disaster for the company, and nipped a potentially disruptive affair poisoning client relations and the dynamics of the office. Don often doesn't "think with his head" and he, in a way, may have done Ted a huge favor there. Go back to your wife and stop messing with the company because of your crush.

I'll link this TIME one, because it does a nice overview of the season. It wasn't the best review/recap of the week, but it captured what I feel Weiner was trying to do with this season. http://entertainment.time.com/2013/06/18/scary-movie-the-fear-factor-of-mad-mens-season-six/ I know some haven't liked it, but to me, just as with the earlier years, Weiner just nailed that sense of danger, hopelessness, and dread that anyone living through 1968 felt. Yeah, it has been a somewhat dark season, but to do it any other way wouldn't have been true to the time. I honestly think he subtly nailed it, without overkill.

The show stayed funny, and the office moved along, characters grew or stagnated in a true way. The backdrop remained faithful to reality though. Just as in the earlier 60s seasons pregnant moms smoked and drank, and kids wandered around in dry cleaner's plastic bags, and rolled around in cars without seatbelts, while a quiet desperation permeated the perfect upper middle class suburban housewives. To do anything less than show 1968 for the ground shaking nightmare it was wouldn't have stayed true to the series. Most of this was done with the sense of menace that Wiener kept in the air, without sacrificing the comedic moments that make this show shine. That Nixon ad playing in the background was perfection.

Anyway, great review are out there. I think of them like dessert after a great meal. Some are serving complicated multi-layered confections, and some dished up perfectly fresh strawberries and fresh from the farm whipped cream with vanilla bean--but almost all of them are tasty treats.

ETA

Just found this! How cool, someone else likes to read them all. http://www.vulture.com/2013/06/best-of-this-weeks-mad-men-recaps-quality-of-mercy.html Vulture does "The best of Mad Men recaps."
Edited by Mariah, Jun 18 2013, 03:28 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
cccharley
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
I think Don did the right thing. I think Peggy is living in her dream world. Dick or not he was totally right. You don't go from 15K to 50K. So they even got an extra 10K in the budget for casting. Sometimes you have to swallow your pride. That is actually something Don doesn't much have nor care about at the firm. Work is a meaning to an end for him. Pays the bills etc. Awards and the like really mean nothing to him.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
weaver
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Oh, Don was right. He saved everyone's ass on that one. Peggy and Chaough were acting like schoolkids.

I love Don in executive mode.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IcyAll
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
The Peggy and Ted love story seems retro to me -- like they had already moved past it when she came in after her ambulance breakup with Abe and he turned her away. So going back to it ... just seems like they didn't have clear discussions in the writers' room and someone effed up and reintroduced something they had moved past, selling Weiner on it with the Don clean-up aspect.

I guess this is NOT the last season, so we have one more ... then 13 more next year.

Mariah, I appreciate greatly the links to reviews you post. I follow and read them all, but am too lazy to search for them myself! Please, post!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mariah
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
OK. I will next week. I wish I had saved the one I really loved, but so many people love this show, and so many great recappers and reviewers write thoughtful reviews I don't remember which one it was.

That last link I posted had about 7 I haven't even read yet. Since I am currently stuck not being more than 40 steps from the bathroom, I've been reading or on the computer for two days now.

I usually just google "Mad Men recaps" and make it last hour or last 24 hours or this week.

I love seeing how many people see different things in each episode, and how they react to it, based on their own experiences.

One thing a few reviewers have said that I disagree with this week is that "Don's done the same thing!" (as Ted and Peggy.)

I can't remember a single time that Don showed sexual favoritism at work, or EVER made other people uncomfortable with his sexual obsession of a coworker during working hours. Yeah, he banged that one secretary when he was drunk and lonely, but that stayed between them until she quit, didn't disrupt anyone else. His "affair" with Megan took place almost entirely away from the office, then he came back from Disneyland and married her. Luckily, she moved on to acting.

He never made googly eyes or made others uncomfortable the way Ted and Peggy were. He certainly never showed preferential treatment based on sex, even with Peggy, it was based on her ideas, he slammed her down as often as he built her up. If the IDEA was good, she was praised. If it was shit, he told her so.
Edited by Mariah, Jun 18 2013, 09:25 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IcyAll
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
He had a sexual thing going on with that Jewish woman who ran a store -- was that season one? Didn't that cost them the account? I can't recall exactly.

Found this: http://www.avclub.com/articles/matthew-weiner-knows-you-want-sal-back-on-mad-men,95733/

Which is interesting. Follow that link and at the bottom you'll find links to other MAD MEN related articles, some old and out of date (like one speculating about Bob Benson that is not interesting since now we KNOW) and http://www.avclub.com/articles/read-this-in-real-life-would-don-draper-actually-h,97411/ which is interesting information any time.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mariah
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Thanks.

Yeah, but his affair with the Jewish woman didn't make any of his coworkers uncomfortable, or mess with the workplace. Yeah, she may have dropped the contract with them, but they wouldn't have even HAD the contract without Don so it's a wash.

Ted and Peggy were ridiculous. As Don said, "EVERYONE sees it. Ask your secretary!"

I kind of thought Don may have saved Ted there, whatever his motivations, Ted ended up going home to his wife and kids. He might have saved Peggy as well, she was making a fool of herself and losing the respect of her coworkers and staff.

All season long I've thought Bob was Don 2.0, or a version of him. Honestly, all of those far fetched ideas were just bizarre to me, it was so obvious. Don's love child? The time traveling spawn of Don and the whore? Dead Don? The clues all added up to another version of a guy faking his life, especially when Bob screwed up and said his dad was dead one week, and had recovered thanks to Manolo a few weeks later.

I still think someone will get a postcard from either the runaway or the dead partner's daughter about joining a wonderful group at an old movie set though. We'll see if that one comes true.

Some are speculating that Don gets fired or dies at the end. I don't think that will happen this season, maybe at the series finale, but I don't even know about that. I do think Peggy will start her own agency eventually, but only at the end. Having Peggy independent from the rest of the cast doesn't really work for the show, her interactions with all of them make things interesting. Pete, Don, Ted, Joan, hell, most of the cast just sparkles in scenes with her.

ETA Finally finished this VERY involved review, it was worth it. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-quality-of-mercy,98638/
Edited by Mariah, Jun 18 2013, 10:49 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums with no limits on posts or members.
Learn More · Sign-up Now
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · TV Drama · Next Topic »
Add Reply