I've been waiting for this episode all season. Matt Weiner has built the Don vs. Peggy plot line so well throughout the early part of the season and Sunday's episode, "The Suitcase", delivered a gratifying confrontation between those two. Looking over several of the posts in here its obvious to see how clearly he hit the mark.




Contrasted with the now legendary "Clay vs. Liston" fight of May 25th, 1965, Elisabeth Moss and Jon Hamm, the two heavyweight players of Mad Men, got to share the majority of the screen time this week pulling no punches and trading dialogue full of antagonism, revelation, pertinent symbolism, and sentimentality. There were even some heavy handed puns woven in. Credit due to Matt Weiner for crafting such a superb episode this week, full of confrontation, featuring Peggy and Don saying the things they've been wanting to say (and that we've been wanting to hear them say) for so long. He truly has the voice of those two characters down solid.







The play-by-play:


May 25th, 1965. We know this because Harry Crane is passing out tickets with that date being the most clearly imprinted text on them. Harry handles his exposition duties for the week by revealing these are tickets for the Clay-Liston fight. The Cosgroves and the Campbells get freebies while Harry charges the lessers of the room $10 a pop. Don assures Harry "absolutely" that he'll be joining the boys for steaks at the Palms tonight. He then barks for the "Samsonite team" to join him in his office.




Don "absolutely" flakes on Harry & Co. by requesting Ms. Blankenship make him and Roger a dinner reservation for "anywhere BUT the Palms". Nice call back to the pilot right there. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Team Samsonite: Peggy, Joey, Stan, & Danny arrive to run through the idea they've come up with. Before they do, however, Peggy gets off a straight left jab at Don about him being over two hours late for this meeting. We get to see how the creativity is dispersed in this crew as Stan sets the scene, Peggy and Joey recite the lines they've come up with, and Danny is short. The idea is to have Joe Namath be the pitchman uttering some cornball dialogue about how strong Samsonite luggage is and how it helps him win the game and get the girl. It truly sounds like every old football player commercial I've ever seen and I swear this was an actual ad wasn't it? Don obviously hates the idea, hates Joe Namath, and ultimately hates Peggy standing up to his dismissal of the pitch. He dismisses Team Samsonite, save Peggy, from his office to explain this.




AND THEY'RE OFF!! After the initial feeling out of these two in tonight's headliner bout, Draper scores the first big blows of Round 1 with a line we were treated to in last week's promo: "Peggy, I'm glad this is an environment where you feel free to fail." OUCH!! Just because I heard it last week, and knew it exactly who it was directed at, doesn't lessen the sting of it. Peggy reveals, rather bitterly, that Don wanted to go with Danny's idea ("Only Samsonite is strong"). This initial bit of battling portends what's to come and does a nice little job of recapping all that's been happening with them this season. Peggy just doesn't feel that Don pays her the credit she is due. She has voiced to him previously that "they" (she) are all there because of him, to please him, and are sorely in wanting of his praise. On top of her feelings of being under appreciated by Don she now has to accept that he likes the new guy's stuff better. The guy Don mocked not only after but during his interview with them. This has got to be a bitter pill for her to swallow.




The bell dings and Round 1 comes to a close with Draper finishing strong. Peggy retreats to her corner to find a vase of flowers and a card from her former paramour Herman "Duck" Phillips. While thanking him for the apparent birthday gift he insists she open that accompanying "present". We're treated to a close-up of a business card reading "Phillips-Olsen Advertising, Peggy Olsen, Creative Director". Its not really a birthday gift though is it? And its DEFINITELY not a Hermes. What it definitely is is a proposition from Duck for her to leave SCDP and follow behind him, waddling into the big-boy pond. He goes into the full sell and lists some of the accounts he's got lined up. Matthew "Big Pun" Weiner lets loose with a few non-ironic memorables from Duck regarding the "under the table" discussions with Tampax. Who's that? Tampax. You know...50% market share Tampax: "they're really up there!". Peggy, being the mathematician that she is puts two and two together and realizes within a few seconds that not only has Duck lost his job with Grey but based on the tenor of the phone call, as well as what she heard about his dripping wet Kanye West impersonation at the Clios, that he's got a whole lotta liquid courage going on. Remember now, as we just learned from Don's pummeling of her in the scene just before, that it is currently 11:15 in the a.m. Roasted Duck is running the alcoholic playbook step by step right now and he goes from positively boisterous (choo-choo!), to melancholy (admitting to being inspired by "Draper" but not having the means to emulate him), to angry (snotting at her about the dummy cards he had made up(1)), to self centered woe-is-me-ism (with that Mark? He's another one...), to sentimental longing and "all I need is you" (telling her she's the last time he was happy) within the matter of, like, two sentences. I think he's barking up the wrong tree here though. Regardless of their relationship and of whatever she may see in him I really can't imagine Peggy as the "co-dependant" type willing to be his crutch as he fumbles drunkenly along Madison Avenue. I think she's honest in her appraisal of him as a "valuable account man" and likes that he hates Don so much but after this episode I think that's one dead Duck. Quite interesting to note is that for all the shitting Duck does on "creative" (and on Don), he quite obviously recognizes true talent and the importance of it. Peggy ends the call with Duck as Huey, Luey, & Lil Dewey drop into her office to announce they're off to lunch.




Ruh-Roh...Ms. Blankenship informs Don, and anyone with decent hearing in the office, that a "Stephanie" has placed an urgent call to Don while he was "in the toilet". Considering what we learn about her later, I wonder if Ms. Blankenship is into water sports. Dons apprehensiveness in facing this battle is apparent as he retreats to the solitude of his office to steel himself for the news he is about to hear. He makes it just about as far as his mini-bar, however, to pour out a little support. I don't think he was going to go back to the phone after the drink, do you? In any case he's rescued from having to follow through as Roger barges into his office like a wacky sitcom neighbor uttering "We're ruined!". The wacky sitcominess ensues as there's a bit of Three's Companiness about the meaning of Roger's lament and blahblahblah reformed alcoholics suck. As I mentioned above the dialogue in this episode is superb and Roger says something here that I think is indicative of that. He whines a bit about how AA guys like Freddie Rumsen and Cal Rutledge from Pond's "...start with the funny stories, and then they end up crying." This exactly the course of events for Don later on. There are clearer examples of symbolism and double meaning to come.




Team Samsonite sits contemplating how much they're failing at this thing and after Joey endears himself to me for vocalizing how much he wants to stab Danny's neck fat, Peggy, cutely decked out in a pink birthday crown, realizes that they're going nowhere fast and calls an end to the proceedings. Joan bitches at them for being messy in the common area and we see a furtherance of Joey vs. Joan. Joey refuses to clean up and exits. Danny & Stanny aren't such complete shitheads however and do the right fucking thing by actually cleaning up after themselves. Their little te-tete was hinted at in previous episodes (2) and if the promos are to be believed (HA!) they continue next week.




The secretary with the dirty faced French mother (is it Meagan?) and Peggy are both powdering their noses. Literally. We learn that Peggy's boyfriend Mark has some romantic dinner plans for them for her birthday. During Clay/Liston??? Sap ass sucka. As Meagan leaves, a visibly pregnant Trudy comes from around the corner after metaphorically powdering her nose. Elisabeth Moss continues to be my favorite on this show and be an expert at doing so much with so little as we see a flicker of uneasiness pass over her once she realizes Trudy has engaged her in polite convo. This girl is solid gold. There's a bit of dialogue about pregnancy and playful banter about Trudy's horrible horrible life with Pete, but the main purpose here is to show that "the fight" is on everyone's radar screen. Even upper crust blue bloods appreciate the spectacle of skilled combat and human confrontation. (3)




Yelled at by mean drunken bully boss? Check. Awkward conversation with wife of man who knocked you up forcing you to surreptitiously deliver and surrender a baby? Big Check. Having to work with Joey, Stan, & Danny? Check. Next question: Can a birthday get any worse?




Yes. Yes it most certainly can. I say so because as she exits the restroom, ready to leave work for her birthday celebration, she's summoned by Don. Peggy goes to see him as the rest of the crew watch her small solitary figure walk valiantly to her doom. They in turn laugh at her misfortune and beat feet out of the building. Peggy, with her coat and hat on, purse in hand, **coughcoughhinthint**enters Don's office to see what he wants. Ms. Blankenship is old and stupid and reminds us that California is waiting to hear from Don. He dodges Blankenship but he picks right back up with Peggy, insisting on seeing what came out of her cute little birthday crowned head. The trade a few shots with each other, Peggy giving even better than she gets, leaving Don so stunned all he can do is utter a fatherly "Excuse me?" at her willingness to battle him on this.




Now here is where the episode got great...




Peggy comes back into Don's office knowing he's going to hate each and everything she puts in front of him. She knows. He knows it. She knows he knows it!! She knows she's going to have to scuttle plans with her boyfriend, or at least be severely late for them, and work with Don on this. And its her birthday!! What she doesn't know, however, is that said boyfriend Mark has assembled the entire cast of "Peggy Olsen: This Is Your Life" (4) at their romantic rendezvous. We know this because we see them all lined up expectantly at the table with him as he receives news that she's running late. And while the boy is boy is painfully clueless and should be flogged unmerciful for such a poor decision, he definitely doesn't deserve to have to spend an entire dinner with those people. I think that violates several Geneva statutes. So, Peggy returns with the shitty Samsonite treatments and, much to the surprise of all involved, Don shits all over them.




After the commercial break we come back to these two and we see some time has elapsed. Peggy's still pitching but Don wants to talk "fight". This is interesting here because its becoming apparent that while Don may have really disliked the ideas presented, he doesn't really care about getting it solved really. He just doesn't want to have to leave the sanctity, the security, of his office. Don does a very weak, almost girly, pantomime of boxing and I can see quite clearly why he was forced to cry "Uncle Scrooge McDuck" later in the episode. The talk of the fighters involved makes Don go "light bulb" and come up with a boxing-related tag line for Samsonite. Peggy, very humorously, lies her ass off in response, professing the idea to be genius and almost physically salivating. Heh. She wants to leave. The phone rings...almost signifying the end of another round. Don looks terrified as his head swivels immediately towards the sound. He half heartily tells Peggy to "let it ring". I think he'd welcome someone else actually receiving the news, or being forced to receive it because she answered the phone. He'd probably have blamed it all on her because she answered it.




Alas, it is Roger. He's begging Don to come save him as he's stuck with two teetotalers. Two teetotalers talking tales through teardrops. The prospect of alliteration aside, Don denies the request to come and "save" Roger. Peggy gets her own phone call in which Mark reveals that he has her family there with him and they're all waiting. I really like the juxtaposition here between these two. they're both getting phone calls pressing them to flee the work. Pressing them to actually go on to plans they had previously made. Yet neither one of them really wants to go. Don I think because he knows he has to stick around and make this phone call. Plus as he said "he wouldn't be very good company". Peggy is different. I didn't realize that she was ready to sacrifice her own happiness, to sacrifice Mark's happiness, for the job until AFTER she comes back and trades a few more blows with Don. He actually gives her an escape. He allows her leave. She makes it to the elevator before we get a fantastic smash cut to a maitre de angrily slamming a phone down in front of Mark. Hee! It struck me here how much Peggy is becoming like Don. I could easily see this being Don and Betty in their earliest days. Back when Don was actually conflicted about staying late and working on shit ideas, yet still choosing the work over the happiness at home. There is no real reason, outside of wanting to please Don or wanting to "do the work" that bad, that Peggy chose to turn back at that elevator. I mean Christ on a cracker...she had already even hit "down".




As good as all the Don vs. Peggy stuff is this episode, I think the best scene of the episode is the Peggy vs. Mark breakup scene. The mom killed me. She spits vitriol in bunches. Knowing what we do later on, what the mother thinks about Don and Peggy, its doubly pertinent that the family winces when Mark snits that Peggy should date Don because she "never stands him up". Oh Mark...why do I think you're going to have a lifetime of being the only one at the table who isn't aware of something very important? Au revoir, Mark...




Peggy strides into Don's office, coming out of the corner hot to trot. She is super charged and they immediately fall into it here. Don says something here that is a repeat of something he said in an earlier exchange, "So this is my fault now?". I wonder if this is part of why he can't pick up that phone and get the news he knows is waiting for him. He's so self-centered, such delusions of grandeur, that he thinks he's to blame. He didn't do enough to save Anna. he could have, but dammit he didn't. And now when he picks up the phone he'll have to face the fact that she's dead and he could have beat her Cancer somehow.


OLSEN IS PUMMELING DRAPER...SHE'S BACKED HIM INTO A CORNER AND HE'S STUNNED STUPID!! She is like a pitbull in this scene, refusing to give Don any breathing space. She's relentless in recounting his recent fuck ups: the fact that they're even there right now, the Danny situation, being drunk, him taking credit for everything, and the she swings for the fences by bringing up Glo-Coat. And now we're getting to what she's fighting for. Don, the wily champ, blocks that last shot efficiently. He knows exactly what she's getting at with that wild swing and a miss and he's going to take it right back to her. This such a true argument here and it felt so good to hear these two give voice to what's been behind their bickering. They're both in the right here and they're both in the wrong. Peggy shouldn't be demanding to be part of the Clio thing but she's absolutely correct in wanting to be given some recognition by Don. Don is correct in corralling wild ambition by not doling out praise to each and every thing but he's got to divvy a bit out and he's got to acknowledge that his fuck ups shouldn't inherently be everyone else's problems. He's ready to share mistakes, like Danny, but not triumphs. Its almost as if the entirety of last week's episode, "Waldorf Stories", was a set up for this bit of dialogue. FANTASTIC WRITING. Although the stood toe to toe for that bit, Don countered strong to finish leaving Peggy to start crying. The man/woman fight kryptonite works perfectly. I'm giving this middle round to Peggy, she definitely got the better of the biggest exchanges, even though Don had her wobbling back to her corner.




Love the janitor fleeing the bathroom as Peggy comes in to bawl her eyes out. Little touches like that reminder of how late they're in the office. Crying alone in a public bathroom at work after hours...worst. birthday. EVER!!




**GULGH**(5)




Back from the odious commercials and we see Don going about the office, preparing his necessary tools for a night of work: a glass of scotch and a tape recorder. He's surprised by a mouse scurrying across his floor. Notice that the skyline outside is now much darker than before the commercial break. Nice little touch to use the break to make it feel like an extended passage of time. He hears a noise in the distance and realizes its Peggy(6). There's a look on Don's face like "Aw shit, I gotta deal with that problem too". Cut to said problem. Pegs in her office, curled up in a girly way on her couch, working away. She's resigned herself to the fact that she's stuck there...might as well be comfy. There's a knocking on a wall and Don's voice comes from off screen beckoning her to come to his office. Like a teenage girl pouting in her room she snots "No!". Man I love me some Peggy, I really truly do. I also love this show because every time I think its going to zig, it zags. I was fully expecting, partially because of the look on Don's face just before, that he was going to apologize to her; that there was going to be a moment shared between them where he cops to being an ass. But no. Not on Mad Men.




On Mad Men Peggy comes into the doorway, annoyed, only to find Don cracking up and insisting she has to hear what's on the recorder. Don has found the autobiographical recordings Roger has been making for his secretary to transcribe. Not only has he found them, he has listened to them and found them hilarious. He insists Peggy come in and listen and laugh along with him. What was seemingly a one-line throwaway in the pilot and played for levity in a few scenes ( for poignancy in one) since has all of a sudden become the thing which brings them together to laugh. Clever writing device or contrivance? As Matt Weiner (via Don) points out later the difference between something that's good and something that's awful is very close. I know good when I see it and I'm leaning towards "clever" on this one. I'm also leaning towards hilarious because Sterling's Gold is 24 carat awesomeness: Ms. Blankenship (Ida) is the "Queen of Perversion", Dr. Lyle neutered Bert Cooper, Bert had him killed, Roger saying "sometime in the Summer of 1948, no 1932...n-no 1939...". I also like that all of the revelations that we hear, the one that actually makes Peggy laugh is the notion that Roger Sterling is writing a book. I wonder if that book will have asides that read: (at this point Mr. Sterling audibly downs a glass of Scotch) "Ahhh...". After Don stops the hilarity he cajoles Peggy, who didn't need much cajoling, to not only saty "and visit" but to share what's on her mind. Peggy astutely points out that they don't have personal conversations, that they never "visit", and she thinks that Don likes it that way. She points out that she herself does. Don doesn't buy it. Peggy doesn't sell it very hard. She begins "visiting" with her attitude towards her just completed break up, ending a relationship she more than likely knew was ended all along. Peggy sees the mouse and eeks appropriately. The rest of this scene is signifcant for three reasons, and they're all Don-central: He begins opening up about his past to Peggy, he utters some of the symbolic dialogue I mentioned above, and he is utterly mortified of that phone ringing. Peggy notices all three. She definitely notices, although the implication may not have registered with her, Don giving up the search for the absconded mouse and his utterance of the line "...there's a way out of this room we don't know about". He's talking about more than the mouse having an entrane and exit strategy here. He's talking about a few things i think. In one aspect he's talkign about the the Samsonite pitch. Both of them would say the reason they're still there at that hour is becuase they haven't found the right idea for the ad. He's saying that there is an idea...one that will allow them to escape this room just as that mouse has done...it just hasn't come to him yet. In another aspect he's talking about Anna. He's trying like Hell to avoid actually facing what he knows is true, that she's dead and he couldn't do a damn thing for her. In this aspect he's trying to reason to himself that there's still a way for him to not have to accept it. He's trying to reason that there's a way for him to get out of it, to get away from it. This idea closely tied in to the revelation we get in the next scene. Don offers to take her out for his version of a birthday dinner.




Peggy's birthday dinner takes place at Slimy Slouvaki's Grecian Spoon. (8) This is such an important scene as we're treated to these two actually opening up to each other. The revelations come fast and furious as they hop from spitballing ideas for the Samsonite ad, to remembrances and recollections of their past, to intimately personal observations. The suitcase is unpacked, they're actually "visiting". Visiting HOARD. For Peggy Olsen a suitcase is something to be filled up, an exciting prospect of what may come. She declares as much when she tells Don she knows "what supposed to want but it never feels right. Or not as important as anything in that office". This is a woman who's more dedicated to what she can be and what she can create, rather than to what she is and what has been designed for her. She's ready to pack her suitcase and go somewhere with her life. We've seen Don be honest about his past with a select few people through four seasons and each time its only been because he was forced to. Adam tracked him down and forced him. Pete intercepted his mail and forced him. Anna tracked him down and forced him. Betty broke into his drawer and forced him. In those instances he was honest about who he was originally and what he came from. The rest of the time that he's even given minute details of his distant and recent life has been to sell. He did it while pitching the Wheel or talking to the dog food lady. Hell, the season opened with an entire episode dedicated to his unwillingness to acknowledge curiosity about himself, about "Who is Don Draper?". This is the first time we've seen him willfully acknowledge the details of his life and be happy to do it. With Peggy. She reciprocates in turn and we see that these two have much in common. They both not only lost their fathers young, they watched as it happened. This may have only just about EVERYTHING to do with their relationship. Peggy will always be looking for that praise from Don. a man she even compared to her father and their attitudes toward the appeal of black men earlier in the episode. While Betty was probably over-praised by her father and it has affected her and Don's relationship in certain ways Peggy, the other important woman in Don's life whether he acknowledges it or not, was deprived of receiving fatherly validation and compensates by placing her self-worth and value in Don's praise and recognition. While I think that's the most important revelation between these two I don't think that's the most important revelation to be found in that scene. That distinction belongs to Don's revealing what his Uncle Max told him. Hearing a man he admired, a man he has acknowledged was "good to him", in contrast to his real father who he has routinely derided, tell him that a man should live his life with a suitcase ready to go at all times was the spur that turned Dick Whitman into the man he would become: Don Draper. With that one sentence we now know why Don has been so ready to abandon his life, his career, his wife, his children, his everything...whenever things got to hot for him. He's bailed on birthdays, fled business trips, and incrementally abandoned his marriage until it collapsed. For Don Draper a suitcase is escape. Don ends the scene for us with another bit of double-meaning dialogue: "Let's go somewhere darker". I knew right then the conversation was going to open up and they were going to say things aloud they probably don't even want to say in their head.




At the bar they're now in, I don't know what the fuck is being said as a 1965 radio is squelching out the fight via an announcer who has apparently put a handful of marbles in his mouth. Let me just say before I get into what these two said that I was wrong at each step in regards to how this conversation was going to go. The emotions, opinions, and responses were not what I imagined they would be. Just like a couple weeks ago during "The Chrysanthemum and The Sword" I thought Pete was going to flame out and shoot himself in the foot with his father-in-law, I was completely surprised by the transpiring of dialogue. What follows is an example of what I mean: Peggy does a little compliment fishing before she gives voice to a story line we've been following since season one.(9) Peggy informs Don that "everyone" thinks she fucked her way through the glass ceiling. While the sheer mechanics and injuries that would result from such a coupling shuold be enough to convince everyone that it didn't happen, what seems to bother her the most is the thought that those two having sex is such an absurd idea. Her pride is more hurt at the belief that Don is out of her league. I didn't expect that. Don tries to rationalize WHY he's never made a move on her by way of a ridiculously transparent explanation of office protocol. A rules and regs guide on the do's and dont's of doing the mommy-daddy dance from Draper? (10) Right here I was thinking "Bad. Idea. Jeans.". I was fully convinced that this would blwo up in his face and Peggy would be offended at his explanation. But no, she actually seems somewhat mollified at the silly rambling because he managed to work in there that she's attractive. (11) Peggy brings up Allison without actually bringing up Allison and Don brings up Peggy's baby without actually bringing up Peggy's baby. Peggy divulges that her mother is convinced he's actually the Don Dada. This prompts him to ask if she even knows who it is. Again...I was ready for her to drop the big one on Don right here but I guess she hadn't had quite that much to drink. I'm glad Peggy didn't betray Pete's trust here, no matter how personal and open they were getting. Its notin character. The unintelligible sounds from the radio pick up and I'm just as lost as Peggy as she inquires whats happening to make all the men around her beg and plead and demand "get up!". Clay has defeated Liston and we get a glimpse that as soon as that fight was over, from men who didn't even see the fight that the "fix was in". (12)




Back in the confines of SCDP, Don does his Roger Sterling impersonation and makes a mad dash for the bathroom where he does a little technicolor yawning with Peggy as his audience. Peggy looks around the men's restroom as if its the first time she's ever been in one, and it might very well be, and while looking at the urinals, the wall graffiti, all to the soundtrack of Don's retching, she looks as if that restroom is a testament to every horrible thing there is about the male of the species. As she's having thi sepiphanie she hears her name being called from out in the office proper. (13) She is suprised to find see Duck. Probably not so surprised to find him drunkenly staggering. However she is most definitely surprised to find Duck, trou dropped, trying to take a shit in what he thinks is Don's office. Having informed him of his error and convinced him to come along she tries to escort him out of the office only to be found by Don. Don's ready to rumble and after being informed that he was once Peggy's drake, he swings once Duck calls Peggy a whore. Feathers fly as the two tussle and tumble. Dcuk gains the upper hand, literally, as he pins Don to the floor and we see Draper staring down the barrel of a locked and loaded Okinawan Palm of Death. Don gives and he doesn't seem to have much fight in him right now nor does he seem to care very much although he does look a little hurt as he realizes that Peggy will be leaving with this man. Peggy leaves with that man. Peeegggyyyy...you got sum 'splainin to-dooooo!!




Peggy returns sans man. She inquires as to Don's status. He reciprocates and starts trying to explain the situation to Don but he looks like that would only make him throw up on his shirt some more. I LIKED Peggy calling Don on his drinking right here. He knew it was time even before she said it. I really think this is going to be Don's metaphorical "wake up call". Don's literal "wake up call" is an image of Anna, suitcase in hand and walking perfectly, ghosts right into his office and looks around a bit like "Sooo...this is it huh? I like what you've done with the place. Could use a tree painted on the wall butits nice". She is transparent and it looks a bit cheesy and I wonder if that was a deliberate Matthew Weiner decision. Maybe trying to tie it in to how it would have looked in the 1960s? Dunno.








(1) - Do you think when he got those cards made up he told the printing company to put it on his bill? HA!
(2) - As well as the reveal of who was behind Joan having to pull pencils out of the ceiling. (It was Stan)
(3) - I love the bit done here by Weiner reflecting the differing attitudes women have regarding Peggy, and her place in this world, on her 26th birthday. After learning that she has romantic dinner plans at a swanky restaurant and taking into consideration her position at the company Meagan, a career girl, remarks that Peggy's "doing alright". Typed out it doesn't seem like much of a compliment but it was said as a compliment with admiration. Trudy, however, has a differing view altogether. Upon hearing that Peggy is 26, and without a husband, she feels sorry for her and tries to buck up the little camper's spirits with a condesceinding remark about there being plenty of time for her to find a man to complete her sad, useless existence.
(4) - Even "the roommate" HA!
(5) - Okay...I am officially FUCKING SICK of these Mad Men style adverts during the commercial break. This one is really only the second that I've watched (the first being a Suave on that I stopped FFing my DVR for because I though it was a scene at a rival firm) but this is just such horseshit. The pitchman is pleding mom, americana, apple pie...while he, and the americana mom apple pie viewing audience at home, get ogle a back lit sultry woman with hair flowing as she writhes her body seductively, just about to make mouth love to a sandwich. It cuts away just as we (the sammich) enter her mouth. There's even the obligatory thumb suck at the end. As if we didn't get the idea already that she has just fellated us all. The product?? MAYONNAISE!! I mean really. I bet there's footage they didn't use, but definitely shot, of her wiping a bit off the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
(6) - Quite different from every time I'M working late at the office and I hear a noise in the building. When that happens I realize its obviously a crazed axe murderer, who just happens to have a key fob for our building, and he's going to kill me if I go out there and look.
(7) - This reminds me so much of the first season episode "Nixon vs. Kennedy" (another confrontation!) when Cosgrove emerges from Kinsey's office with Kinsey's play "Death Is My Client" (and Allison, btw). After some clumsy attempts to get it back while Cosgrove reads aloud, Kinsey seethes. There's a cut-away and when they come back, instead of a fight between the two or Kinsey still seething and suffering, the Sterling Cooper Players are assembled and ready to perform for the crowd. That was a clear zag when a zig was expected. MWAH!!
(8) I wonder if even back then all restaurants were owned by Greek people. I wonder if even back then all restaurants owned by Greek people burned donw suspiciously.
(9) - I love when good shows do this. I loved it when The Sopranos would do it, when The Wire woul do it, and when Futurama does it. It makes being a fan of the show so much better
(10) - Sheeeeyyiiiiit (c) Clay Davis
(11) - What do the women think about this?
(12) - And really can we blame anyone for going nuts in 1960s America? Just a brief survey of some of the episodes of Mad Men shows why. In a very brief period of time Marylin Monroe dies under mysterious circumstances, the president was murdered, his alleged assassin was murdered in front of everyone, civil rights movement is going crazy and civil rights workers in the South were murdered, Malcolm X was murdered, and the country is in an ever escalating war. I don't doubt it all that people become more and more suspicious of anything that looked even remotely dubious.
(13) - Again...I would have instantly known my name was being called my a completely different axe murderer, this one who not only has a key fob but knows my name. They do exist.