Mad Men season 7 thread

I read somewhere that it wasn't necessarily meant to represent somebody committing suicide (although Layne did). Instead it was meant to show the rise and fall of characters in the personal and business lives as well as the rise and falls of the office with new business wins and client losses.

If you look at the main characters such as Don, Roger, Peggy, Pete, Betty and Layne - they have all had some fortunes and major misfortunes along the way. Even smaller role players like Harry, Ken, the gay art director and the one dude that peed his pants (Freddy?) have had similar swings.

 

It's fascinating to me how many people believe the opening credits should be a literal clue. I honestly can imagine a more awkward plot development that Don going out the window at this point. Weiner can be a little too on the nose at times as a writer, but not to that degree.

 

You know what I didn't buy on the show tonight? Don tossing the Selectric like it was a Nerf. Those things weigh a ton.

 

Good God he's not really going to quit drinking is he?
As an aside, the show has been very true to the music of the day but I think there has been a pretty big omission, and anyone in his or her mid-50s will get this: to my knowledge, I haven't heard any Herb Alpert and the Tiujuana Brass. They were huge in the late 60s and had a lot of the music used in ads (Teaberry gum) and pop culture (several Herb Alpert tunes were used in the beginning and ending credits of the Dating Game).
Would like to see a show ending with "Lonely Bull" blasting.

 

After "the mother is dead and Ted ends up with Robin," I'm done telling people dumb ideas won't happen because they are dumb. It only takes one person really liking a bad idea to make it happen.

 

"Lonely Bull" was released in 1962.
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass were long past hip by 1969.

Maybe Bert still was listening.

 

The thing I like about Mad Men is that there is a lot of stuff that is filler that may mean something later on - but there is at least one scene that is crucial. I'm thinking Don's conversation with the computer guy means that he will end up leaving (What have you got? You!) and starting his own agency, with Rumsen, maybe Pete - and Roger will know that he's too old to start over again.
The show is about reinvention - Don will do it again.

 

Don's death stare after Peggy told him to write 25 Burger Chef tags was gold:

http://previously.tv/mad-men/don-draper-stares-at-peggy-olson-for-a-very-long-time/

Also, I had thought they used "Burger Chef" as a stand-in when Burger King didn't agree to be name-checked, but it was apparently a real chain:

 

They were still big in the late 60s. Lonely Bull was far from their last album. They were releasing and selling albums into the late 1960s. And I wasn't pointing out where the music was in Mad Men circa 1969. Only, where's it been?

 

Yes, it was real for a time, was McDonald's only nationwide competition. I actually thought Burger Chef was much better than Burger King.

 

The main group is really getting put in its place. The Roger and Marigold mud-wrestling match was priceless, as was her telling him to get buggered because what she's doing is no different from what he did. Also, her commune name prompted images of the old Tom Slick/Superchicken cartoons for me. Couldn't help it.

I guess the partners' bluff has been called, because Don basically violated all the terms of his reinstatement in a span of about five show minutes. Freddy becoming Don's de facto sponsor is a poetic turn. Wonder if it'll come full circle and Don will piss his pants.

 

I was waiting to hear some Harry Chapin "Cat's in the Cradle" when they hit the mud pit. (And when you see mud like that - nowhere near a water source - is there any doubt that the characters are going to end up in it?)