I really love this show. I like how subtle they are when they highlight some of the major differences in thinking. And it really does feel authentic; much of it I can relate to just from my youth in the seventies.
I also like that they don’t spell everything out for you. They leave you with bits to chew on that may or may not become relevant later on.
I’m as hooked on this show as I was with The Wire and Rome, but for entirely different reasons.
She Say and I watched the entire first season over a 24 hour period. It’s an awesome show.
I’m a little concerned though with the second season. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere…the first season had the over-arcing story line of ‘Who is Don Draper Really’…but…so far in season 2, all I see are bits and pieces of non-interrelated stories…
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately depending on your view), I’m unable to watch the show without drinnking a tumbler of whisky.
[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
I haven’t seen the show yet. Are they slapping their secretaries and the ass and saying very inappropriate things around them?[/quote]
Have they hired any black people?
I don’t know anything about the show, I’m just picking up on the premise from what you all write.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Uncle Gabby wrote:
I haven’t seen the show yet. Are they slapping their secretaries and the ass and saying very inappropriate things around them?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Have they hired any black people?
I don’t know anything about the show, I’m just picking up on the premise from what you all write.
This is HBO?[/quote]
It’s AMC.
The way the show deals with race is interesting. They haven’t hired any black people, as there is no way a company like this would have had black employees at that time. They have black people in the show that operate the elevators and work as waiters. The first episode set the tone for the race issue when Don Draper tried to talk with a black waiter and a white waiter immediately rushed over to make sure everything was “okay”…
One of the employees has a black girlfriend. The year of the show is now 1962 and you can see this character developing into a stereotype of a beatnik.
The company also doesn’t have any Jews working for them (there are Jewish ad agencies, where all the Jews work). When a new client turns out to be Jewish, the executives run around looking to see if they have a Jewish employee to make the new client feel ‘more comfortable’. They kick around the idea of trying to pass off their one Italian employee as Jewish, and then find an actual Jew working in the mailroom.
To add to what sen say said, it’s 1962; and there is a LOT of racial tension and change about to be unleashed in America. The characters seem to be oblivious to it all at this point.
There are rumblings of changes slowly coming in the workplace and of the first stages of cigarette litigation (“Lucky Strike” is one of their main clients).
This show could EASILY go for 3-4 more years just watching to see how these characters, stuck in the 40’s and 50’s, react to social change.
Personally, I don’t see how Don will live an additional 4 years.
One of the best parts of the fashion aspect is these guys never wear jeans or shorts. When Don has to put together his kid’s b-day present (which is a giant playhouse) he’s in dress slacks with a belt and a t-shirt and wearing dress shoes. It’s great because he’s more dressed up than most of us are when we go to work and he’s smoking tons of cigarettes and putting down like a case of beer…he ends up getting bombed and ditching the kid’s party…finally comes home after getting the kid a dog.
Best scene from season one – Draper and Cooper have been engaged in some covert male rivalry drinking many, many martinis. They have to get back for a big meeting with a client and the elevators are out. So they have to walk up like 20 flights of stairs. Cooper is dragging his ass up the stairs at the end about to pass out and when he gets to the office he projectile vomits right in front of the waiting clients.
[quote]deputydawg wrote:
Best scene from season one – Draper and Cooper have been engaged in some covert male rivalry drinking many, many martinis. They have to get back for a big meeting with a client and the elevators are out. So they have to walk up like 20 flights of stairs. Cooper is dragging his ass up the stairs at the end about to pass out and when he gets to the office he projectile vomits right in front of the waiting clients. [/quote]
That was great, but not as great as Cooper riding one of the twins, they chose for the commercial, out of his office right before his heart attack from her “…making him do it a second time.”
And Peggy…(Don’s ex secretary whom he promoted to a copywriter, and who had the baby by Pete).
They are going SOMEWHERE with this character.
Feminist?
Shrewd Executive?
Hippy/Counterculture?
Other?
She is relatively “quiet” now; but you can tell that internally she is fighting against the “status quo”. (Did you see Don’s face when she called him “Don”; and not “Mr. Draper”?)
They are definitely going somewhere with Peggy. She now has one big secret and we are getting more back story on what happened after the baby was born. I think she is going to become a shrewd executive. She is sort of a Barbara Walters of advertising. That’s how I think her character is going to play out. I have never understood why she screwed that weasel.