Mad Men Season 5 running thread

Yeah, Pryce is just the guy who watches the money and keeps the trains running on time. He'd function fine in the modern world.

 

The Peggy-Dawn ending was the saddest part of a dark show, with Peggy drunkenly speculating she didn't have it in her to be a man... And then treating Dawn the same way Roger treated her.

 

I know what the writers were going for, but who leaves $400 in cash alone with a person they barely know of any color?

 

There is an alternate interpretation that some commentators out there have raised that this was actually a moment of solidarity between the two because Peggy would have normally grabbed the purse without a second thought, but she wanted to show Dawn that she trusted her.

Not sure if I buy that that was what Weiner was going for, because the overwhelming majority of viewers seem to interpret it the other way - and that was my impulsing watching it, as well. Plus, it's not like Dawn knew there was $400 in there. But something to think about.

 

Might have missed this, but who caught Newsweek's new 1965 issue with Mad Men on the cover?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/newsweek-mad-men-issue-cover-1965_n_1362420.html

Sixties themed ads, old-time fonts.

Not sure how I feel about the tie-in aspect of it, but it was a cool deal.

 

I'm going to try to word this as best as possible.

I know a lot happened in the 60s. A lot. JFK, Cuban Missile Crisis, civil rights and MLK, Vietnam. What am I missing?

My point and I guess question is can someone give me a primer on that decade? Perhaps a simile for today's time? The conversation here just steered toward our characters and how they adjust to life in that era. Why would it be difficult for them? It's probably a shallow comparison, but would it be like a businessman in today's age who refuses to or simply doesn't understand the role of technology (computers, emails, smart phones) plays in business?

Does any of this make sense? ha.

 

I think that's a pretty good comparison, actually.

In "Mad Men," the business that they are engaged in makes the requirement that they be in touch with the prevailing social order particularly acute. In 1962, if you are directing ads at happy housewives, you are hitting your mark. By 1968, if you are directing ads at the same, nobody is listening any more. At heart, it's a "know your audience" business, like all of them but magnified even further.

 

The note left conspicuously on top of the purse would belie that interpretation, as would Peggy's earlier interaction with Roger.

Interesting idea, though.

 

The idea, though, is that the note reinforces that interpretation, i.e. putting the note on top of the purse thanking her for letting her stay was a conspicuous recognition that she left the purse there and trusted her.

 

I also think that there was more of a social disconnect between the Don Draper generation and the next generation than there is between our generation and our kids. By that, I mean we're more likely to enjoy some of the same music as our kids, understand the new technology better (hey, some of us even tweet). We didn't have that with our parents. A lot of what we did in a social sense was completely foreign to them.

Don Draper of 1967 would more likely be thought of as "square" by teens and young adults than if he were mid-40s today.

That also may be wishful thinking on the part of a fiftysomething. But I believe there's truth in it.

 

I think it's a good question. I feel uncomfortable and disconnected from teen-agers now when I'm around them. But I don't think they necessarily look at me as out of touch or a "square" in the same way as would have been the case in the Vietnam era. I think they just look at me as a grown-up doing grown-up things.

 

Beatles, Woodstock, Summer of Love, Women's Rights