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Post by Viced on Oct 14, 2019 18:21:55 GMT
Finally finished this sunnuvabitch after meaning to watch it for years and at long last plowing through it over the last 2 months or so. For the most part, pretty masterful stuff. The writing, the characters, the performances, the time capsule of the '60s (shit, it's more than a time capsule.... it is the '60s)... I'd say it's #2 for me behind The Sopranos for me in terms of the... weight of the writing and the series overall. Where each episode seems to have something to say that can be thought about for a long time and evaluated in a number of different ways... I don't know how the hell to word this, but people who've watched the show should know what I mean. I think it's episode 4 of the first season where Pete Campbell asks his father for money... and that very brief scene makes you see Pete in a totally different light than before and gives you a deeper understanding of why he is the way he is. That kind of scene is what made Mad Men brilliant for me. There were a number of episodes that seemed almost meandering at first, but then an incredible moment would come out of nowhere and make it all worth it. But I think I'd rank it as my fourth favorite drama... because The Americans and The Shield win out for entertainment value and emotional investment. My only real problem with the show is that Don's affairs are booooooooooring. I know he's got some incurable mommy issues and I'm not saying these storylines didn't make sense or anything, I was just hardly really interested in any of them.... with the exception of Faye in season 4. She was the only love interest that really seemed to get Don while being a great character on her own. so.... I don't know... thoughts on the show, rank the seasons, favorite episodes/performances/characters/etc.I dunno if I can rank the seasons since they all kind of blended together at some point... but I think 4 is definitely #1. episodes1. Shut the Door. Have Seat (3.13) 2. The Suitcase (4.7) 3. The Other Woman (5.11) 4. In Care Of (6.13) 5. Waterloo (7.7) performances1. Elisabeth Moss 2. Jon Hamm 3. Vincent Kartheiser 4. John Slattery 5. Christina Hendricks favorite characters1. Pete Campbell 2. Peggy Olson 3. Don Draper 4. Roger Sterling (king of the one-liner) 5. Miss Blankenship least favorite characters1. Glen Bishop 2. Midge Daniels 3. Lou Avery 4. Paul Kinsey 5. Abe Drexler random favorite moments:
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Post by stephen on Oct 14, 2019 18:57:00 GMT
The first four seasons are flawless. Season 5 is a step down but still great. Season 6 is ass except for Bob Benson. Season 7 does what it can to right the ship, and those last few episodes are damn good... but it still doesn't do enough to erase that rough stretch.
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Post by ibbi on Oct 14, 2019 19:33:24 GMT
I don't want to say it is outright my favourite show of all time, because... I don't know, but I do know I've rewatched the thing more times than any other drama series. I must have been through it all 5 times by now. It is one of those shows you can just mine deeper into each time, but has that sheen of production, that seductive look and feel that makes it easy to just get wrapped up in the world unlike my other favourites (Deadwood, The Wire) where the worlds are so ugly it's far less desirable to go dipping back into them again and again. Yet the brilliance of the show is how it probes just that very thing, digging under the shiny surfaces to the darker heart below, it's like opening up some ornate music box to be fascinated by just how it all works on the inside. Anyway, I kind of agree with you on all Don's mistresses, none of them were particularly interesting as individuals (though I love the performances of the two in the first season so much that it doesn't matter to me) but they all helped further unravel the mystery that is Draper himself. To me there's this sort of divide in the middle of the show. The first 3 (really the first 2, by the third the tone is already short of shifting) seasons have a certain feel about them that the following seasons are completely different too. They lose this sort of smokey, archaic time capsule, looking back into the past quality about them, where the later seasons feel much more shiny and modern. It's another touch that probably is just due to increased budget, but really sort of works on account of the changing society that by season 4 the show was more overtly coming to reflect. The other change aside from that general look in feel that comes in about the same time is more of a shift from a more serialized style where less seems to happen in each episode, and they all flow together to paint the bigger picture, where as from like season 4 onwards there seems to me to be more of a standalone quality to more episodes than there had been in the earlier years. When the thing was airing I think I tended to prefer that, but rewatching now I almost like the earlier style better. In fact the only thing about the show that I really don't like is Joan's storyline in the final season. Much respect for Bruce Greenwood, but just the whole fucking thing except for her scene with Jim Hobart is corny, simplistic, cliche nonsense we've seen done in other shows and movies in just as good if not better fashion. Favourite performances are definitely Hamm and Moss towering over the others, with Kartheiser a not at all too distant third. Probably would agree with your other two picks rounding out the top 5. Slattery just nails every single line he has, while Hendricks got more and more to do with each season and really nailed it. It'd either be her or Rich Sommer for the fifth spot. Characters is Don, Betty, Peggy, Pete, and Harry. Betty got real boring there in like seasons 3 and most especially 4, but she rebounded real good. God bless Jim "It's a lot of money" Cutler too. Glen is easy pick for least favourite character, but any fellow puts fucking Duck in their top 5 deserves to be shot. Damn you, Viced. Justice for Chauncey. I too cannot rank the seasons because... I think they're all so fucking good. I guess 7 is probably my least favourite, but even that has got so many incredible episodes in I look forward to getting around to every time. Favourite episodes off the top of my head: Marriage of Figaro The Hobo Code Three Sundays The Gold Violin Seven Twenty Three Shut the Door. Have a Seat. Public Relations The Rejected A Little Kiss Part 2 Signal 30 At the Codfish Ball The Other Woman Commissions and Fees The Flood The Better Half In Care Of Field Trip Waterloo Time & Life Lost Horizon Favourite moments:- When Don goes to that joint with Midge and the hippie. When Betty shoots the birds. When Don slams the door at the end of The Hobo Code. When Peggy has to hold the baby in church. When Ken goes to Sal's for lunch. When Sal does the Bye Bye Birdie dance for his wife. "Just when he got his foot in the door". When Don signs his contract. When Don drops his cigarette. When Roger asks Peggy to get him some coffee. When Roger and Don go to recruit Pete. "Did you enjoy ze Fuhrer's birthday?" When Peggy peeks into Don's office after that secretary runs off wailing. When Megan seduces Don in his office. When Sally hugs Megan after falling over in the hallway. The end of A Little Kiss. The end of Signal 30. The end of At the Codfish Ball. The end of The Other Woman. When Lane tries to start the Jag. "Are you alone?" When Pete and Harry argue over Martin Luther King. When Don, Betty and Bobby sing that song. When Pete smokes a joint. The Hershey's presentation. The end of In Care Of. The end of The Strategy. "It's a lot of money". "Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car at night?" The end of Time and Money. The end of Lost Horizon. THE END OF PERSON TO PERSON.
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Post by Viced on Oct 14, 2019 19:47:53 GMT
In fact the only thing about the show that I really don't like is Joan's storyline in the final season. Much respect for Bruce Greenwood, but just the whole fucking thing except for her scene with Jim Hobart is corny, simplistic, cliche nonsense we've seen done in other shows and movies in just as good if not better fashion. Yeah... wtf was that? Couldn't Joan have went on to have a career with some power without having to choose it over a man? Hell yes... if he was developed more he might crack my top 5. I kept thinking of an alternate show set at a different agency where Cutler is the Roger Sterling character (of course they're very different characters, but that other show could still be fascinating!). Heel Harry Hamlin was something I didn't know I needed to see on this show... Holy shit... I forgot about poor Chauncey. Editing ASAP. But I loved how Duck somehow never fully left the show... and his drunken outburst at the Clios (or whatever that gala was) was one of my favorite moments. Outside of that, enjoyed reading your thoughts! I look forward to re-watching it in a few years without being in such a rush to keep watching it... seems like a show that could be even better when you give it some breathing room.
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Post by DeepArcher on Oct 14, 2019 20:27:55 GMT
Glad you loved it... It's been about four years since my last full rewatch (went and gave it a second viewing after the show ended), so my memory is a little rusty on a lot of it. I've always adored it, though, and it's for sure one of my favorite drama series ... top five with little doubt, I'd say ... it really is just impeccable across the board. The time period realization is absolutely unprecedented, I think, and the extent to which it involves you in this unique cultural era couldn't be more immersive and poignant. The characters are just so perfectly crafted, so many who you're never sure if you actually love 'em or hate 'em, and that's the beauty of it, because it's always kind of both at the same time. They're so lifelike and they're brought to life by one of the best television ensembles of all-time. Really only have great things to say about this show, and I've never really gotten onboard with the criticism that the latter seasons were considerably weaker. I guess the sixth season is the weakest of the show, but not by a very significant stretch, and in fact the entire run is pretty damn consistent. Plus it has one of the best final seasons/series finales that I've ever seen ... it's done so perfectly and I was just overwhelmed with emotion during that last stretch. Such a damn fine series & easily one of the best written ever, really only The Wire and The Sopranos are in that same echelon surely ... and it's reeeally due for a rewatch for me, but that's something I can do when I have the time for it in, uh, a few years? For now ... some favorites as my memory best serves me ... Episodes1. "The Suitcase" (4x07) 2. "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" (3x06) 3. "Nixon vs. Kennedy" (1x12) 4. "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (3x13) 5. "Time & Life" (7x11) 6. "The Other Woman" (5x11) 7. "Person to Person" (7x14) 8. "Lost Horizon" (7x12) 9. "The Gypsy and the Hobo" (3x11) 10. "Far Away Places" (5x06) 11. "The Strategy" (7x06) 12. "Commissions and Fees" (5x12) Performances
Elisabeth Moss Jon Hamm Christina Hendricks John Slattery Jared Harris January Jones Robert Morse Characters
Pete Campbell Peggy Olson Joan Harris Lane Pryce Roger Sterling Don Draper Bert Cooper Stan Rizzo Harry Crane Moments
Obvious, unquestioned, number one moment: And some random other ones, most of 'em pretty iconic... - Lawnmower incident
- "That's what the money is for!"
- Peggy rolls up to McCann Erickson
- The diner ending of "The Strategy"
- Leonard's monologue towards the end of "Person to Person"
- Don and Peggy's final phone-call
- Don's monologue in "The Wheel"
- The Hershey's presentation in "In Care Of"
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Post by Billy_Costigan on May 11, 2020 21:20:09 GMT
I watched Season 1 years ago and couldn't get into it. I finally re-watched and finished the rest. I started to really get into it during the middle of season 2 (though the last 2 episodes of Season 1 are great). It's probably my #2 of all-time behind Breaking Bad. Rarely do shows go through so much change and still maintain their quality. Season 4 is almost a reboot with a new location and new characters. The characters serve their purpose move on, and the show rarely miss a beat. I like how the smaller characters stay on for multiple seasons instead of appearing on episode 1 and leaving after the season finale like most shows. It feels seamless and helps maintain the continuity. It's such a rich, character drive show that you rarely see anymore. I haven't felt this way about a show in a long time and I can't wait to re-watch.
Ending shows is always tough but I thought it was pretty brilliant. I kind of wish we got to see Don strolling back into McCann to pitch the ad though. Was it satisfying enough for you?
They seemed to stop giving Betty anything to do after season 3. It's shame how her story ended. Besides Betty, I love what they did with the characters. Pete Campbell feels like Jamie Lannister (before GOT ruins him in the last season). He's such a slimeball in Season 1 but you come to love him by the end. Don's affairs always angered me.
Favorite Episodes/Moments 1. Shut the Door. Have a Seat - "Fire us." 2. The Suitcase - "That's what the money is for!" 3. The Strategy - "I worry about a lot of things, but I don't worry about you." 4. Waterloo - "It's a lot of money." 5. The Wheel - "This device isn't a spaceship. It's a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the Wheel. It's called a Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around, and back home again... to a place where we know we are loved" 6. Nixon vs. Kennedy - "Mr. Campbell, who cares?" 7. For Immediate Release - "We got Chevy." 8. In Care Of - "This is where I grew up." 9. Person to Person - "What did you ever do that was so bad?"
Ranked Seasons All are great. 1. Season 3 2. Season 4 3. Season 5 4. Season 7 5. Season 1 6. Season 6 7. Season 2
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Post by notacrook on May 11, 2020 22:02:09 GMT
Quite easily my favourite show of all time. Think I've probably watched it all the way through roughly 3 times, though not always in chronological order. It's a show I've fallen more and more in love with with reflection and getting older (I was 13-15 when I first saw it, and a lot of its greater elements kinda flew past me). It didn't have an entirely perfect run - season 6, while solid, fumbled with several of its character and plot developments - but its first 5 seasons are just impeccable on every conceivable front, and it really came back with full force in its final stretch. The ending was perfect in its open-ended, quiet optimism.
Seasons ranked 1) S5 - 10 2) S4 - 10 3) S1 - 10 4) S7B - 9.5 5) S2 - 9.5 6) S3 - 9.5 7) S7A - 9 8) S6 - 8.5
Top performances Elisabeth Moss (maybe my all-time favourite performance) Jon Hamm John Slattery Christina Hendricks Robert Morse Jared Harris January Jones
Was gonna do top episodes, but there's too damn many! The amount of singularly excellent episodes in almost every season is staggering.
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Post by Allenism on May 11, 2020 23:46:12 GMT
For some reason my memory of TV seasons as a whole is terrible, so I can't be arsed to look back and itemize the episodes which stood out to me the most. I'll just say as a sweeping statement that as its best, this was one of the finest shows ever put on television. It was the novelistic quality of the show that set it apart from many of its contemporaries, specifically in how moments of silence or stillness still reverberated with so much subtextual meaning. Weiner's writing was remarkable both in its period accuracy and additional layer of contemporary commentary. And God was also smiling when that cast was assembled because it feels like each main actor was destined to play their respective characters. Moss and Hamm overall are the MVPs in my eyes, but Kartheiser, Slattery, Harris, and occasionally Hendricks all put in top-drawer work as well.
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Post by quetee on May 15, 2020 22:57:22 GMT
Yikes i read an article that said it was leaving Netflix next month. Ugh. I gotta watch it again before it leaves.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on May 16, 2020 0:08:41 GMT
How is Ken?
I really only want to know because I watched a youtube video "The Worst Endings in Video Games" and among them was LA Noire (which should NOT have been there, which even the people behind it say but included it because so many people hate it) where the guy who plays Ken is the lead in.
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Post by quetee on Jul 22, 2020 20:26:22 GMT
It's on IMDB TV.
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Post by DeepArcher on Aug 21, 2022 2:13:35 GMT
... and it's reeeally due for a rewatch for me, but that's something I can do when I have the time for it in, uh, a few years? Came back here to post about just finishing my re-watch and, wouldn't you know, I called my shot in 2019. A thing like that! Really interesting seeing this three year old post ... and at the time I hadn't watched the series since 2015 I think ... for one, that I could recognize Pete Campbell as the show's best character but somehow neglect Vincent Kartheiser in a list of the show's best performances. What a truly underrated piece of acting; that he did incredible work for 8 whole years and didn't get a single Emmy nomination across its entire run is just mind-boggling to me. Also baffled that I include Harry Crane in my list of favorite characters - the biggest shitheel in an office full of 'em. I'd for sure bump him off for Kenny Cosgrove. Also, get rid of Stan Rizzo and throw on my guy Bob Benson ... one of the all-time great (mostly) single-season arcs in television. So, obviously this show is still brilliant. A brilliant study of Americana, a brilliant study of capitalism, and especially a brilliant study of the never-ending conflict between public and private life, the clash between the image of ourselves we present to the world and the true person underneath, and whether that exterior image can overwhelm our "true" selves entirely. I'm not here to write a dissertation but I could go on all day, is the point. But, there are certainly some things I came to have a greater appreciation of this time around, and the list is exhaustive, so I can't go through all of them. For one, I found myself really invested in Betty as a character in a way that I never was before. In much the same way that I finally understood the essential purpose of Tony's kids in my latest Sopranos rewatch, I really came around to how crucial Betty is to the show's entire pathos. Of course, the show really underserves her after Season 3, and that's one of its few real "flaws," if you wanna call it that - not only that they don't figure out much for her to do, but the character feels quite a bit dumbed down and less sympathetic as the show goes on, with Season 7 and maybe also 6 marking a slight improvement in that department. Still, through the first three seasons, Betty's picture-perfect suburban life that feels increasingly hollow on the inside is such an integral part of the show's themes and perpetually a striking contrast to Don's lifestyle. It might not seem like the most incisive commentary these days, but it's just so beautifully told, and Jones' performance in those first three seasons especially is really remarkable, communicating both Betty's fragility and her resolve, and her yearning for agency. She's probably the cast MVP of the third season and maybe even the first. If there's another thing I came around to in a significant way, it's Season 6. As far as I can remember, basically always pegged as the show's biggest misstep. Watching it now ... I honestly really don't see why? It's a step down from the preceeding three seasons, sure, but Season 3 through 5 of Mad Men is, like, possibly the best three-season run in television history - I mean, really just immaculate stuff for practically thirty-nine episodes straight - but it's not like Season 6 is a dramatic step off a cliff. It's a bit slower, more morose, and I think that might be why it didn't play as well in its initial airing. But it's an appropriate tone for a season set primarily in 1968, and, among a number of other great features (aforementioned Bob Benson; the merger & ensuing drama; all the Ted and Peggy stuff, which played really well on re-watch for me), contains arguably the single most coherent single-season arc for Don, whose carefully manufactured mystique slowly crumbles, culminating in him finally laying his soul bear in public, only for him to be dismissed for finally speaking the truth for one. I could go on ... for now, more pointless list-making. Revised Top 10 Eps1. "The Crash" (6x08) 2. "Far Away Places" (5x06) 3. "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (3x13) 4. "The Suitcase" (4x07) 5. "The Other Woman" (5x11) 6. "Time & Life" (7x11) 7. "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" (3x06) 8. "Six Month Leave" (2x09) 9. "Signal 30" (5x05) 10. "The Grown-Ups" (3x12) HMs: The Strategy!!!, Waterloo, The Beautiful Girls, Mystery Date, Hands and Knees, For Immediate Release, a bunch more obvious ones and some underrated favorites - Field Trip, Seven Twenty Three, Souvenir, Shoot, Three Sundays, you get the idea. Updated Season Rank: 5 > 4 > 3 > 6 > 7 > 2 > 1 Man ... I know this is like the third time I've finished this show and I can literally re-visit it any time, but I'm truly gonna miss this show So good it actually makes it impossible to get into other TV while I'm watching it. Truly one of the all-timers but you need me to tell you that.
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SZilla
Badass
Posts: 1,464
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Post by SZilla on Aug 23, 2022 18:35:04 GMT
Started the first season this past week for the first time. It's been fantastic so far.
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