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Only just seen you've been in here!
You're a first time Madster, aren't you? If so, I'm thrilled you love it, either way!
I'm presuming you watched it on BBC2 then? It is also on BBC4 on Wednesdays at 10.00pm and is a week ahead of the Sunday showing, so if you can get BBC4 you'll be able to catch up. So I'm about to settle down to Ep2 now, as I've been out and have recorded it.
What do you love about it? Why are you already so caught up in the series? Characters? Stories (there are so many of those but you can ask more along the way as you become more fascinated.)? Production details? (I love the filmic qualities of this programme. Period detail, costume and fashion, lighting, camera work... I could go on!) It's like having a weekly injection of a top quality 13 week film!
Stick with this bit of Gaga... I'd love to talk to you here about it, even if no-one else comes!
Put it on your Ticker. Xochi will get back to you!
I won't give anything away... but suffice to say this fourth series is incredibly good. Its perhaps the best series so far ? It made me laugh out loud ( definitely the funniest series so far i.m.o.. ) and also blub uncontrollably.
I'll be tuning in to BBC4 Wednesday nights to savour it again
.Hi Hoochie
welcome. I would love to hear what you think of Mad Men!
Confession absolved by bottles of tequila offerings!
So the US series is about 2 months ahead of us then? I thought the beeb were going to try and brings it closer to the US launch date... obviously not that much closer though! But it means you'll have seen this episode 7 that everyone is banging on about... is it really all that?
Can't wait, but hope the hype doesn't ruin the anticipation and enjoyment.Oh... can't remember if I asked you before, but am I right in thinking you post on Will Dean's excellent blog? I do too usually, but as waifandstray.
But anyway... Mad Men! I was extremely anxious after the helter-skelter pace of Ep1 as SCDP are shown in their new offices and new characters introduced. However, Ep2 returned us to the wonderful internal lives of the main ones with all the subtly we've come to expect.. And wow! I'm certain we're in for a rollercoaster now!
We in the U.K. are about to see episode 3... [ a classic MM episode - darkness and light ]
I watched this U.K. series.. but last week, I couldn't stand it, I'm a shameless Mad Men addict... so I went to a place where I could catch up with U.S.
Episode 7 ...you heard right . Its astonishing... I won't spoil it, but its the most emotionally involving episode perhaps so far . You will fall in love with Mad Men even more...
b.t.w I've seen you on the blog, waifandstray, yup
Jeez its some blog... I'm almost ashamed reading it, as I realise how much passed over my head 
It's incredibly brainy, isn't it? But it's lovely to read and absorb the cultural and historical references too... It's great to know if you want to read around the programme there is one simple resource at your fingertips! And I think some of the comments from those of us who may be without those terms of reference still bring something to the table... a more instinctive response that also asks questions! I'll be looking out for you there now rosey, as well as checking back here so we can talk about it without perhaps feeling it's a bit like doing an essay for school!
I admire your willpower Xochi (may I call you that ) . I have ruined it for myself However I'll really enjoy watching it again... luckily its that kind of show, it has so many layers I'll notice new things for sure.You got it exactly right... It is a bit like a school essay isn't it?
Brings me back to schooldays and doing Eng Lit A level... but I loved that!!!!I love the Guardian Blog / comments... the only downside is that after page 1 and 2, things get slightly lost in the multitude... so please could you cut and paste your comments here too, Xochi?
Right, down to business... What do you make of this series so far? Is it just me or do the colours seem slightly more vibrant now we're into the "swinging" sixties?
Schooldays, eh?! Yep, I loved my Eng Lit A level too... so much so that I went on to do it for my Uni degree (for which, admittedly, I scraped a shoddy 3rd).
And of course I'll copy my Guardian posts here. I didn't get around to commenting on Ep 1, other than to show my face again. But here is what I posted for Ep 2.
My notes from the break room.
'I don't know if this has already been observed yet, but Glen and Sally are both involved in a dark battle to be noticed. Glen advises Sally to ask for something big for Christmas before a baby comes into the game. He is already battle scarred it seems and wants to pass on this wisdom to her and so his vandalism is part of his need to protect her too.
They are alone in this world and the apparently cruel darkness put me in mind of Golding's Lord of the Flies which would have been a well-known best-seller at the time. 'Choose your allies carefully', a worthwhile motif for the Mad Men themselves! Sally had always relied on Don to be her protector but without him she now turns to Glen.
But Don is already an absent protector in more ways than one. He is disengaged from his relationship with his children to the extent he gets Alison to read out the letter to Santa. The final scene is Don leaving the office with the mound of presents that Alison has bought and beautifully wrapped... he has had no part whatsoever.
Which brings me back to Don's Descent! Wow! The contrast to the upbeat optimism of the beginnings of SCDP is almost painful! He desperately tries to avoid any thoughts of his childhood as ever, but now he is falling even further away from Don Draper and hitting his past as Dick Whitman. Except he's not Dick... he's becoming his father. A drunk and an abuser.'
But anyway... yes, you're right! The colours are more vibrant... I hadn't noticed it as such, but such are the subtle production qualities that we've come to expect, it is almost taken for granted! And I guess that the use of colour (weren't the costumes for that gruesome Christmas party amazing?) helps place us well and truly in the 60s. The earlier series would have had much more of the post-war austerity palates that place it in the 50s. And those are the the colours we see Don still placed in, both in suits and surroundings. Kind of reinforces my point about him becoming Dick before our eyes. 
you're so right about Don.. ohh..having watched ahead you're spot on Xochi If you got a third, I'm guessing you spent your Uni days living, not studying
I wanted to study Eng Lit but got pressganged by my family into studying law
I wanted to do law! Didn't get the grades, thank god! I'd never have stuck it out!
Anyhoo... I glad I've got the right cues about Don then... except I'm not, if you know what I mean.
Still, I know MM will deliver equal measures of laughs with the measures of misery along the way!Chat later about Ep 3 then!
Sure thing, fellow devotee
Interestingly, Will Dean said pretty much what you did about him becoming Dick before our eyes.
Some people on the blog didn't rate it as an episode, but it was one of my favourites, in my top five certainly. I though the narrative structure with the two intertwining stories, Don/Dick and Lane, was excellent.
What did you think of it Xochi?
Oh! I'm so glad you said that about it being such a great episode! It will be one of my favorites too!
It was laced with fantastic hints about future plot avenues and directions again, as we'd always expect but don't appreciate enough now I feel.
The acting in this Ep was supreme! It often only took a second for the intent to be expressed. Joan and Greg was heartbreaking, wasn't it? How the writers manage our perception of her like this is amazing! The sexy, controlling dominatrix in the office, but reduced to the longing child at home!
Don and Lane was fantastic... horrible but hilarious in the same scenes! When Lane asked Don about how much the escort cost and Don told him $25 I was catapulted back to the exchange of money that Don did when he gave Alison her bonus. It again draws me to Don's awful decline. He is now the pimp!
Oh there are so many things to say about it.. Anna and Dick/Don, that gruesome scene in the car when he starts his previously so alluring moves on Stephanie...
Bloody hell! I love this programme!
I love this programme too - it seems to get better and better.
Just some thoughts..
I'm feeling really uncomfortable in the new hip swinging 60's Mad Men. Its not cosy any more but still good. It's telling how Pete's is the only office that is a little traditional. Everywhere else is cramed with larger than life abstracts. Pete still has small sets of watercolour (?) landscapes in his office. He is still wearing the same type of suit as in first episode. As always Pete is hard to figure out.
Roger and Don are drinking for America.
Oh, I really don't like Faye... how manipulative is she!?. That scene with the secretary's was cold .. but then it is advertising. Horrible woman.
Pete!! Woo hoo! Pete's gonna be a daddy... again.. Loved the way he got his father-in-law, not just to accept that Clearasil was over but to hand over Vicks account.
Love Mrs Blenkinship.
Surprised that Don was typing an apology to Alison. He still feels
Fuddy duddy Peggy ends up in the coolest dive in town. Her child, wherever s/he is has a half brother/sister on the way.
Wonder what the scene at the end was about... the old couple... does anyone know?
Love all the abstract artwork.
.
interesting observationsI agree the new series look and feels different, we're really into the sixties proper. It feels and look brasher, harsher somehow. Nice spot about Pete, I hadn't noticed that about his office!
As to the old couple-pears segment, this is what WIll Dean says in his Guardian Mad Men blog:
âĒ "Did you get pears? Did you get pears?" Was the old man's question code for "pairs" or a celebration of the loving banality of the long marriage â ie, what Don looks unlikely to ever have.
I also love Mrs Blenkinship Well, another great episode! We are being spoilt!
I hadn't realised it had been directed by John Slattery (Roger).
He's more than just the suave comic he portrays, although there were plenty of comic moments sprinkled around again! And I hope, hope, hope we keep Mrs Blenkinship... she'll knock some sense into young Don! "Dr Miller's here. She's a woman!" PMSL! And a brilliant way for Joan to punish him for his cavalier ways with his secretaries. Funny you mentioned the design of the offices greeny!
This is what I posted in the Guardian blog in the early hours of the morning! waifandstray
30 September 2010 3:10AM
@ mucephalVery good point about the glass and separation.
I've become increasingly interested in how the surroundings of the new offices are involved in the drama. Many of the characters have complained about them, especially the 'old guard'.
viz. Pete's complaint to Harry about his office as he confronts the pillar in the middle of it, and which is used to good comic effect by Lane later! Harry points out to him that he (Pete) had chosen it in order to be closer to Roger. Later Pete leans his head against the pillar from frustration. (A move that Peggy later uses as she bangs her head on her desk... metal desk mind, not the solid wood furniture of yore.)
The walls and doors are used so much now to frame scenes and to comment on events.
There is often something very Mondrian-esque about all of this.
But note how the agency is still patrolled and organised by Joan. No longer is there a singular board room. The owners sit around in a reception room until there is an area available for them to congregate. Joan even hurries the focus group observers out of it in order to return it to it's normal use. And she draws a curtain over the glass with a curtain!
Excuse my ignorance... I must go and look up Mondrian. I knew it was directed by John Slattery... but I hadn't twigged until you said, that thats probably why it had such a wonderfully light comic touch in places. Definitely the funniest episode to date.
It just gets better and better!
I'll post my critique in more depth tomorrow!
But WOW!
"Also mourning the future loss oldmuskrat
But WOW! What a great episode! It just all gets better and better!
I'll do a better critique later, because so many things stand out.
Essentially though. The return of the business, Don's seeming decline whilst pulling the rabbit out of the hat at the end...and the young pup Pete's ascendancy. And a near punch-up between Pete and Roger! Who would have predicted that! Scrub that. It was a SCDP business accident waiting to happen.
But as long as Mrs Blinkinghell is around through the series, all is well with the world!"
Hope you guys thought it yet another episode to discuss!
It was excellent wasn't it. WOW indeed. The pace of this series seems upped a bit, theres so much going on, and all the different strands beautifuly woven together.