tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post366262493714595505..comments2023-12-23T16:22:22.290-05:00Comments on alicublog: SEASON 7, EPISODE 3.roy edrosohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15161980502027888634noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-65665910734312468762014-04-30T09:36:49.293-04:002014-04-30T09:36:49.293-04:00To me, this episode was strangely IT'S A WONDE...To me, this episode was strangely IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE-esque... I could nearly see Henry Travers hovering over Mr. Draper's shoulder, saying "You see, Don? When a person isn't there, he leaves an awfully big hole!" The ad agency is sputtering without Don, Megan is flailing and self destructive, Roger's joie de has lost every bit of its vivre, Betty is hapless and utterly incapable of making any meaningful connections at all except with an infant... (and even there, as she very astutely observes, "it's only a matter of time")... while Don, by contrast, is on his very best behavior, trying to impress everyone with just how much they need him and just how good he can be. <br /><br />And apparently, he's right... and the agency, at least, however grudgingly, understands it. Nobody else does yet... and the interesting thing is, by the time they do, if they ever do, the old Don may be gone forever. <br /><br />Or not.<br /><br />Which uncertainty, I think, is why we watch this show.Doc Nebulanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-60017450752754593902014-04-29T14:59:56.679-04:002014-04-29T14:59:56.679-04:00=)=)randomworkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-43905550409781751192014-04-29T14:53:11.250-04:002014-04-29T14:53:11.250-04:00It's the grace notes that still make the show ...It's the grace notes that still make the show worth watching, and the history upon which they are built.<br /><br /><br />I loved Don, just before the final meeting, checking his hand to see if it was shaking, which evoked the moments before the Hershey meeting, when Ted told him to take a drink so that his hands did not shake.<br /><br /><br />It was a nice encapsulation of the complex changes which the characters undergo.Joshua Buhsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-74796705837630555212014-04-29T12:16:37.966-04:002014-04-29T12:16:37.966-04:00Thanks!Thanks!edrosonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-66279791386996653242014-04-29T11:31:54.444-04:002014-04-29T11:31:54.444-04:00Don may now be the nicest person working at SC&...<i>Don may now be the nicest person working at SC&P.</i><br /><br /><br /><br />Suggests, doesn't it, that in the show's view nice people are just mean people who don't currently have the authority to be mean.edrosonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-13497460709173652442014-04-29T11:30:49.220-04:002014-04-29T11:30:49.220-04:00Laughed? I gasped. Either way it's a hell of a...Laughed? I gasped. Either way it's a hell of a thing.edrosonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-79952948253110291192014-04-29T10:52:40.816-04:002014-04-29T10:52:40.816-04:00RE: the Betty sub-plot. It seems to build on a th...RE: the Betty sub-plot. It seems to build on a theme that started way back in the beginning, Betty-as-child. Remember the neighbor kid with the crush? Betty has been portrayed all along as this cossetted creature whose growth has been stunted by a life that expects nothing from her except that she look pretty. Wasn't she having panic attacks at the beginning of the series? Those weren't dealt with by learning how to cope or with any kind of personal growth but with pills. Betty's character has been shut off from any kind of growth throughout the series, mostly because of the choices made by Betty herself.JennOfArknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-63789949394433827482014-04-29T09:55:17.813-04:002014-04-29T09:55:17.813-04:00Maybe this is the point of the story arc - that go...Maybe this is the point of the story arc - that going to work back in the day when it was the Boys' Club, and money and liquor flowed freely was fun, but as the times changed and the agency becomes more and more like workplaces are today....JennOfArknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-8727553437884668282014-04-29T09:53:41.933-04:002014-04-29T09:53:41.933-04:00and none of them know it.
Well, some of them mig...and none of them know it.<br /><br /><br />Well, <i>some</i> of them might know it.mdsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-69838764669635564762014-04-29T09:25:20.154-04:002014-04-29T09:25:20.154-04:00I find the commentary more exciting than the show,...I find the commentary more exciting than the show, that I quit watching in the first season.randomworkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-62441401178935179292014-04-29T03:39:07.173-04:002014-04-29T03:39:07.173-04:00Almost all of the characters have become simply ho...Almost all of the characters have become simply horrible people. (I used to love Peggy and Joan! Now I cringe every time they have lines!) Don may now be the nicest person working at SC&P. Even Sally likes him again. Dawn stands by him because he has never pulled white privilege on her (male privilege for sure, but that's the way Don rolls with all women.)<br /><br />It's become a horrible, dysfunctional place to work, where it used to be fun and exciting. Without Don the place went to shit. Everyone there who thinks they didn't miss Don is lying to themselves.Insane Clown Wizardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-33099491503555743942014-04-29T01:28:20.229-04:002014-04-29T01:28:20.229-04:00as I realized a year or so back when Roger was wee...as I realized a year or so back when Roger was weeping over that shoe shine kit -- the sort of scene that's Screenwriting 101 for a reason -- Roger isn't even a surrogate father to Don; he's more of an aging Skimpole, and I fear Don hasn't figured that out yet. http://sn.im/28ux95mKatharineMChapmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-34175728520210448362014-04-29T01:23:35.026-04:002014-04-29T01:23:35.026-04:00The thing that has got me from the very beginning ...The thing that has got me from the very beginning of the series is that feeling that pervades it, for me at least, that all of the characters are reeling towards some kind of inevitable doom. That may be just because of the period and the fact that I know what's coming in the years ahead, it might be because of the intro music and graphics which give off a very strong doom vibe...I'm not sure, but that's always been my overarching impression of the show. Doom. These characters are all each marching towards it in their own way, and none of them know it.JennOfArknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191252.post-41686309907858162192014-04-28T23:51:01.625-04:002014-04-28T23:51:01.625-04:00The payoff of the red herring was the loudest I...The payoff of the red herring was the loudest I'd laughed at television this year, and my discomfort as Don was humiliated in the waiting room was also unparalleled. Hell of an episode.John Nessnoreply@blogger.com