Mad Men!

[carseat]

Anyone watching tonight?

I'm a little behind because I've been watching the marathon all day while chasing babies, but H is home, all three tiny ones are sleeping, and we have wine open. So we're sitting here catching up and I'm refreshing for dadalou updates.

Also, H and I Mad Men'ed ourselves earlier today. You should all do this.


www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/mad-men-yourself

[carseat]

RACHEL???

*wine*

[avswolf]

I just finished season 7, so I'm still behind

[carseat]

I'm not feeling the styling. Roger would never grow that moustache. He's a silver fox, not an old man.

I'm going to watch again tomorrow. I'm so glad it's back - and sad that it's on its way out.

[avswolf]

Is this season 8?

[carseat]

Apr 5, 2015 22:16:31 GMT -5 avswolf said:

Is this season 8?

It's the second half of season 7. The split mid-season - presumably to have two runs at award season for the same season.

[avswolf]

Oh....no wonder it was so short on Netflix.

[chiawombat]

I have a lot of thoughts. The first one is that I'm just so glad this show is back. Also...

1. Of course Don suggested just changing the name (of the pantyhose) and disguising it as something higher end. That's the whole secret to his success.
2. There seemed to be a theme of substitution this week -- the waitress substituted for Rachel in Don's mind. Ken is going to substitute for his father-in-law (his wife will certainly love that).
3. Was there something about the 70s that made the men act more piggishly than they even did in the 60s? Because dang... there was some ugly behavior.
4. Peggy owns me.
5. I felt bad for Joan in that meeting, but I felt like throughout the rest of the episode, she has become someone who is largely unlikeable (your mileage may vary).
6. That said, re: Joan, I thought it was interesting how they showed her struggling with things women still struggle with today with regards to image. We have to determine how feminine/masculine we need to dress and style ourselves in order to be taken seriously, meanwhile the menfolk walk around looking ridiculous (hello, crazy mustaches and unkempt hair) but are assumed to be professional gents. It's really sad how far we haven't come on that front.

[carseat]

chiawombat, love reading your thoughts on this!

Ken. His story has always been really interesting to follow. I liked that 'fuck you' moment he got, but I had been glad for him to get the chance to go write.

I think decorum was just starting to fall apart at that point. Everything got more casual, and along with that people felt freer with their speech. That meeting was horrific, though.

I loved Peggy's whole date. I'm interested to see where that goes.

These last few episodes this season I've been really disappointed in Joan and the way she's turned on Don. I understand that she's angry about Jaguar but while all of the circumstances are a disgusting mess, in the end it's much better to be free of that account and on to bigger and better. I feel like her anger there is misdirected.

I also think that she's especially struggling with her image and treatment in the shadow of what she did to get Jaguar.

I agree that it's frustrating that dressing to be taken seriously is still an issue. I think I've shared before that in my previous professional life I got a lot of hell about my appearance, despite the fact that I routinely overdressed for my role. The crime: I have curly hair, and the fact that I didn't get up to straighten it every day showed that I didn't take the job seriously (despite my tailored black suits). Fortunately HR stepped in at that point and clarified what reasonable expectations were, but I was held to a much higher standard than most of the men in my office. It was really fucked up.

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@cara5565, it was completely nuts. And I didn't go in to the office looking wild or anything, but curly hair is not serious, so clearly I wasn't serious, either. At one point I cut it short and that was a HUGE mistake. Never mind that it looked well styled every day. It meant that I couldn't hide the curls.

It was really stupid. Some big HR stuff ended up going down in those offices and I was thrilled to pieces to not have to go back after my mat leave (I went full time with my own business). It was unfortunate - it was an interesting environment with a lot of incredible talent, but I reported to someone who was always trying to keep people down. I would have loved to get more out of my years there, but it was impossible the way it was.

Interestingly enough, I reported to a woman who seemed out to prove her own worth by making everyone else look bad. What she took too long to understand was that she was making herself look bad because she was incapable of managing a team.

[carseat]

@cara5565, she ended up shooting herself in the foot. She was so focused on looking for any imperfections in people that she let her own stuff slide. It caught up with her and she tried to put in an official report about me for a huge mistake. Problem: I saved everything and all correspondence showed that she was the one who had royally fucked up. HA. And it was really obvious that she was just trying to make people look bad. She ended up losing all managerial responsibility, but she was still awful to work with. I was glad to leave.

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I totally didn't mean to derail this thread with my stupid work environment. Haha!

I'm curious about Megan being in the preview leading up to yesterday. I guess she'll be in the last half? *shrug*

[adinashoshana]

carseat I have been there (similarly) with the curly hair thing--and I'm a teacher! It's insane how having curly hair--even with product in it--is often viewed as unkempt or not done.