Mad Men Second Season Starts tonight on AMC

Yeah, and you know what else?

I wish I could go back in time and get Ilsa Lund NOT to get on that plane in Casablanca.

 

Which Billy Crystal references in a very funny way in When Harry Met Sally."

 

Re: "Mad Men" returns tonight

First season is about the Madison Avenue advertising world in the pre-Kennedy 60's, before hippies, civil rights, Vietnam and feminism, or as someone said, a series about "drinking, smoking & whoring". It's a world where at 36, you're considered middle aged.

Second season begins just after Kennedy is elected

Trust me, you'll like it.

However, I think you really need to watch Season 1 first.

 

Re: "Mad Men" returns tonight

I watched the first 6-7 episodes before life got too busy for me to keep up with it.

My 25-word version would be...

"A complex period drama about advertising men in NYC post WWII that poignantly shows how America's values have changed in 50 years."

I loved seeing the smoking pregnant women or the man slap his friend's kid across the face, and all of this was perfectly accepted back then.

I gotta start watching this show again.

 

Strange, inward show, and it has been since its inception. Hard to buy as a straight-on drama. It seems to lean toward David Lynch/Todd Solondz territory. Judging it literally, and not as off-kilter pop art, and I think you get a misrepresentation of the time.

I like it though. Especially Peggy. Her character, and the actor who plays her, come off as a parody. Any episode now, she'll probably accidentally stab someone.

 

Alma, I disagree about the misrepresentation part.

Sure the out-of-the-office scenes can be Lynch/Solondz/Haynes/Sirk influenced, but the office stuff is spot on. Season one was from a time when copywriters slid their ideas under the door to the art director to execute. Jews were scoffed at on Madison Avenue. Advertising generally sucked, sexism ran rampant through the hallways and the three martini lunch was standard procedure.

Season two begins two years later. The young guys who came into Sterling/Cooper last night exemplify the actual beginning of the dismantling of the old guard in the ad world (which, timewise, ran parallel to the upheaval in the Hollywood with "Bonnie and Clyde," etc).

If history is any indicator, it seems that Sterling/Cooper is on track to be caught flat-footed, left behind like a dinosaur. I expect them to complain loudly about "those Jews up the street at Doyle Dane Bernbach" any day now and I'm looking forward to more scenes with Robert Morse.

 

I really like this show because it has great characters, portrayed by excellent actors that suck you into their world.
And as a tribute to "The Sopranos," last night's episode sets up the season nicely.

 

I loved the first episode of the season, and looking forward to the rest of the season.

It was also interesting to watch the post-show commentary. I'd talk more but I figure it's best to keep this thread spoiler-free, since many who have posted haven't watched the series yet.

 

I just got done watching the first episode of this season on On Demand. I'm left with a strange and confused feeling. I was hoping some things would be answered from last season.
Does Draper's wife really know he's cheating or was that whole telling the psychiatrist a way to draw him out into telling the truth? What happens with Don's other women? Does he leave them and go on the straight and narrow? What did Peggy do with the baby? Give it up for adoption? Is it Pete's kid?
Why was Betty Draper talking to that kid in the car like that? I don't expect that one to be answered necessarily. It was just a weird scene from the first season finale.

 

She knows. I don't think that's even questionable at this point. (As a side note, the latter option you mentioned would require her to know anyway, since she'd have to know "the truth" to want to draw it out.)

According to Weiner in the interview after the premiere, he has given them up (we're supposed to get that out of Episode One -- I didn't completely catch that either) but neither he nor Peggy is completely satisfied with the situation.

We're meant to assume that, but we don't know for sure. I have the feeling there's a twist.

We're meant to assume that as well. If she slept with anyone else, it was off-screen and never mentioned.

Do some searches on AMC's Mad Men blog ... there has been discussions of her psychology and this issue in particular.

 

Really enjoyed the opener; much darker than last season.

Spot on about the firm perhaps being left behind like a dinosaur.

Loved Draper's comment though, "they hate us because they can't do what we do." (kind if like my profession)