Posted Nov 4th 2009 8:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
The assassination of JFK on
Sunday's episode of Mad Men may have been the catalyst for Betty Draper's "awakening," but it's been a long time coming.
Here comes my rant: I, for one, am sick and tired of seeing the women in this show get walked all over! I know it's the way things were back then, but the times they are a changin', so I'm hoping we'll get to see more women stand up and take charge of their lives.
I was cheering when Betty stood up to her lying, cheating, skank of a husband Don and told him she didn't love him anymore. Bonus points for driving off to meet your lover, Betty. Hopefully, he won't cheat on you.
Now if Joan would leave her loser fiance who raped her at the office and then went about his business like nothing happened -- that'd be the icing on this women's movement cake. I'd say that she and Roger Sterling belong together, but she's too good for him.
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 4:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free, Mad Men
One of the things I love (out of many, many things) about
Mad Men is the advertising, business, and social history that serves as a background to much of what goes on in the lives of the characters on the show. For example, Conrad Hilton has been a character on the show this season, hiring Don and Sterling Cooper as an ad agency. I assumed that Matt Weiner and his writers approached the Hilton family and/or the Hilton chain about using him on the show. But that's not what happened.
The Hilton chain actually approached the show.
Continue reading So why is Conrad Hilton a character on Mad Men?
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 7:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
I had been expecting the JFK assassination to become part of the
Mad Men storyline from the moment they showed us the invitation for Margaret Sterling's wedding on November 23, 1963. Expectations are one thing. Watching the way the national tragedy was depicted was quite another. As I watched the scenes unfold, I was riveted to the screen – and that was a surprise to me because on Fox the Yankees and the Phillies were locked in a very tight World Series game, and I cared about the outcome.
But I found myself unable to turn away from
Mad Men. It wasn't pleasant to watch those black and white images of anchormen Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley. The moment I saw the flickering images behind Harry and Pete in the Sterling-Cooper office, I knew what was happening. It was terrific storytelling, by the way, for the viewer to know, but for Pete and Harry to be oblivious.
Continue reading Mad Men gave me the chills
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 12:52AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S03E12) "The whole country's drinking." - Pete,
to Trudy
When Joel talked to
Mad Men creator and writer Matthew Weiner last month, he wouldn't say when or how the show would deal with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We all knew it was coming, since
last week's episode was set on Halloween, but I actually thought it would happen in the season finale. But they addressed it tonight.
They say November 22, 1963 is the day America changed, and I would say that the lives of the people in and around Sterling Cooper changed too, in various ways and for various reasons.
Continue reading Review: Mad Men - The Grown-Ups
Posted Oct 28th 2009 10:56AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, House, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock, Dexter, Reality-Free, Mad Men, The Mentalist, TV Squad Ten, Glee
Rules are meant to be broken... especially for these ten television characters. For them, the rest of the world has one standard to live by and they have another. It makes them interesting and fun to watch... you just wouldn't necessarily want to be the person having to deal with them because they could drive you to distraction. Here's my ten pack of characters who live in a world of their own, according to no rules except their own. From the not-too-bad to the really bad.
10. Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
You would think that as a consultant to the CBI -- California Bureau of Investigation -- Patrick Jane would be compelled to uphold the rules and regulations of the department. However, Jane is a free spirit when it comes to office protocol. He does his own thing. For instance, bugging the office of a CBI higher-up is definitely not kosher. Jane doesn't care; he did it anyway and will probably get away with it.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: TV's biggest rule breakers
Posted Oct 27th 2009 8:04AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Daytime, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Mad Men
I'll admit it: I like
Martha (the show and the person). Unlike a lot of daytime shows that feature cooking and other how-to segments, it's not so heavily tilted towards women that men can't get into it. Unlike
Rachael Ray, which has way too many segments on makeovers, relationships, and what shoes you should wear.
Today she has
Mad Men's Joan Holloway herself, Christina Hendricks. It says in the summary for the episode that Hendricks is going to mix Halloween cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Whenever someone from
Mad Men is on Martha they make cocktails. Last season Bryan Batt (Sal Romano) was on and made Manhattans and Rob Roys.
Here's a sneak peek. It doesn't really show too much, except that most of the episode is all about spiders. I hate spiders.
Posted Oct 26th 2009 11:40AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free, Mad Men
I continue to be amazed by
Mad Men. I don't mean the overall quality of the writing, the acting, the direction, the production. It's easy to be amazed by all that. I'm talking about where Matthew Weiner and his writing staff are taking us.
I think we can all agree that, beyond the bigger picture of how the 1960s changed America, the big story on the show has been "Who is Don Draper?" It's the big secret that he's been keeping since episode one and it has really been the driving force of the show. But
last night Weiner and Co. blew the show wide open by having Betty confront Don about the box in the drawer. And when she did, Don actually told the truth! And this wasn't even the season finale!
Continue reading Last night's Mad Men twist: brilliant or risky (or both)?
Posted Oct 26th 2009 12:40AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S03E11) Autumn in New York, why does it feel so inviting... That's a great song, and I thought of it while watching the opening of this episode, with the Draper kids all excited about Halloween. And there was also that chill in the air between Don and Betty. Actually, the icy glare was all Betts. She was off to see her brother about selling their father's home, but what was really on Betty's mind was the contents of Don's desk drawer. More on that and gypsy and the hobo, after the jump. By the way, this was a great
Mad Men episode.
Continue reading Review: Mad Men - The Gypsy and the Hobo
Posted Oct 21st 2009 10:29AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
So ... Betty Draper is starting to get an inkling of Don's dark and secret past on
Mad Men. In
Sunday's episode, she found the box with all his secret things. Really, you'd think he would keep it in a safety deposit box or something. You can't just leave that stuff lying around the house, even in a locked desk drawer. Someone's bound to find it, just as Betty did.
My question is what will Betty do with this important information? She' s already been stung by Don's affairs, and now she's got
this to contend with.
Continue reading What will Betty Draper do?
Posted Oct 20th 2009 2:36PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Video, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Reading the plot description for this week's
Mad Men, "The Gypsy and the Hobo," and it says that a former client returns to Sterling Cooper and Betty takes the kids on a trip. I'm assuming the trip is without Don/Dick. I wonder if she'll return.
Here's a sneak peek of the episode, and I think it shows the client in question. Not sure who the gypsy refers to or the hobo (perhaps the one Dick met as a kid?).
Posted Oct 19th 2009 4:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
I'm really, really ticked off with
Don Draper. After last night's episode, I'm firmly convinced that
Mad Men's
Matthew Weiner is out to make Don the biggest jerk around. There are so many things to hate about Don lately, but let's just take a second look at
last night's Mad Men episode. Don is practically flaunting his newest dalliance in Betty's face. When she asked him if he was sleeping at home, he said no and used Hilton as an excuse. Does he really think that Betty is that dumb?
Apparently, he does. Or perhaps he thinks that he can talk his way around her even if she were to confront him about cheating on her. Of course, Betty's still obsessed with Henry Francis, so who's she to squawk, right?
Continue reading I have a problem with Don Draper
Posted Oct 18th 2009 11:55PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S03E10) "We don't need to go every week." - Betty, about church I once had a boss, a rather bad guy, who used to brag that he was a good person because he went to church every Sunday. I used to say to myself, "yeah, because you
have to go to church every Sunday." I thought of that after Betty said that above quote to Sally. I'm not very religious, but if people have to go to church every week because of the bad things they do, then Betty and Don are two people who should be going.
Well, certainly Don.
Continue reading Review: Mad Men - The Color Blue
Posted Oct 15th 2009 12:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Lately, Don Draper has not been coming off as a very nice guy on
Mad Men. In fact, he's been a complete jerk. However, if there's one thing positive about the tall, dark and handsome ad man, he's a great dresser. Jon Hamm looks amazing in
Don Draper's suits. Well, now so can you.
Brooks Brothers is selling the Mad Men Edition suit for a mere $998. (Hey, that's not a grand, unless you count tax).
Don't dawdle, though. There's only 250 suits in the limited edition run. The look is inspired by the
Mad Men 1960's Madison Avenue style, which could also be the
How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying look from the Broadway show or
The Dick Van Dyke Show look, depending on your favorite reference point from the '60s.
Continue reading Dress like Don Draper with Brooks Brothers' help
Posted Oct 12th 2009 1:38PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Last month,
Mad Men was celebrating winning a slew of Emmys. One of them was for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, the episode entitled
"Meditations In An Emergency." When
creator Matthew Weiner went onto the stage to grab the Emmy, with him was Kater Gordon, the co-writer of that episode. Today,
Kater Gordon was let go from Mad Men.
Are you shocked? Apparently, the industry press is. Gordon had risen from personal assistant to writer's assistant to member of the writing staff. After the Emmy, you would think that she was in like Flynn.
However, something must have gone awry or why has she been given her walking papers? And if you think it's not a dismissal, listen to this announcement from the show:
Continue reading Emmy-winning writer let go from Mad Men
Posted Oct 12th 2009 2:40AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S03E09) Nobody was getting any sleep, or so it seemed, and many people were acting like babies who wanted what they wanted when they wanted it.
Conrad Hilton has become more of a headache to Don, and the way he's being played, he's very Howard Hughes-like to me. Eccentric, powerful, demanding and hard to read. For a master player like Don, it has been unnerving to have Connie pull his strings. Don doesn't like being a marionette.
Don wasn't the only one having his strings yanked. Lucky Strike, in the form of client Lee Garner, Jr., pushed Pete and Harry around, but it was Sal who suffered. And Henry discovered that Betty was more complicated than any Ossining housewife he ever knew. More after the jump.
Continue reading Mad Men: Wee Small Hours
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