Mad Men

[Rumpy]

Episode 2 was really good! I'm back on board.

[Chux]

Best episode of the season so far.

[sleeve]

Always good to see a Joan-focused episode.

[Rumpy]

phenomenal episode, so many great scenes with fantastic dialog. the power play from what's his face against joan was great and when draper and co meet peggy as they leave the pitch was awesome. 'i'm going to see a friend' -flips the bird as he walks by peggy at the counter-

[Drewbacca]

Show's good.

Someone pretending to be intellectual recently said to me that this show was shallow and obsessed with looks and facile representations of themes and ideas. I asked him what was facile about Don recognizing that beating his children solved nothing and refusing to do it even at the behest of his spoiled wife?

This show is subtle. And sometimes it is about the class. But there's a lot going on here that goes beyond the pretty veneer.

Joan is amazing. I like her character more and more as the serious progresses.

[The_Meach]

I don't know how much this show really has to offer more than:

Don is a selfish dick;
The "good ol days" we're only good if you were a white male; and
These status-obsessed, soulless assholes are status-obsessed, soulless assholes (recall Pete's father-in-law lecturing Pete about how selfish asshole behavior is fucking short-sighted and will never lead to true happiness).

I say all that w/o seeing this season, so maybe I'm missing something?

[Drewbacca]

Is that really everything you've taken from the series? I'm not saying it's for everyone, but you can't just sit there and say the show is thematically shallow. That's completely insane.

This week's episode with Don coming to realize how much he loves his son was terrific.

[Mzo]

The show isn't about anything. Things happen and the characters all react and then it keeps going. It's not trying to tell you anything. It's not trying to show you anything.

I find it pretty easy to lose interest in it. I'd call it shallow.

Maybe it gets better later? I don't really care. Enjoy your well-acted soap opera.

[Nick]

I think the core of the show is about identity and everyday deceit. Look at the very first episode.

Don is presented as a playboy, the woman he has a drink with assumes he isn't married and he does not correct her. I believe he tells the woman he spends the night with that they should get married. The audience is supposed to be surprised when Don is shown going home to a loving wife and a couple of kids at the end of the episode.

In subsequent episodes, we find out that Don assumed the identity of a dead soldier and keeps his old life locked up in a desk drawer even his wife cannot access. That secret feels so important, but just when you think Pete ruined Don's career by revealing it, Burt anticlimactically says he doesn't care in the least, because Don is making him a lot of money.

Peggy is a good girl that gets birth control pills, puts her hand on Don's, and sleeps with Pete, all in the first episode, and all after she is repeatedly told by Joan and others that she is expected to be a certain way.

Sal is homosexual but presents himself as a womanizer because of the times he lives in and the career he's chosen.

It goes on and on. Is it more important who you are or who you've convinced everyone you are? It is a particularly relevant question in this age of social media and Internet personas.

[dave is ok]

It's character driven, not plot driven. That's why it seems like nothing happens.

There are still plot driven moments, mostly involving screwing a client over or losing a big client - but if you don't enjoy watching Don be Don, the show isn't for you.