Mad Men

Season 5 

episode 9 

DARK SHADOWS

Seemed to work pretty well last week, lets give it a shot again.
 A little live blogging the reshowing .

Two weeks before Thanksgiving 1966

• Mrs. Francis!  Yeah, happy to have some Betty, even if its unhappy not quite as fat Betty, doing WEIGHT WATCHERS!
• Hip v Hep!  Gosh, but I do love Bert and his 50$ million dollar art work
• It's been a year since Don wrote his anti tobacco letter - cough cough
• Great Roger line! " How Jewish are they , Fiddler on the Roof: Audience or Cast?"
• Don going in to work on a Saturday Afternoon in some smoking tight slacks and casual sweater. 
• Don is there, we hope because he does not want to be around ALL those kiddies, finding a little of Ginsberg's work.... he stays to work, maybe stealing a little of it?
•  In one of the BIGGEST SHOCKS SINCE Zou Bisou Bisou Betty in Don and apartment, Really - matronly Peck and Peck Betty and wild hip, changing her shirt, Megan. Kissing HER children good-by - do not mess with a woman who just started weight watchers!
• Don at work , and lots of talk of sin.....
• Betty and the whip cream, been there done that.
• Creative meeting on selling Snow Balls, which I think are like slushies. Don pitches an idea - everyone is a little shocked, Don doing some work!

Hmmmm... not sure of any over riding theme here. Glad to see we are seeing some actual Advertising. This photo is pretty shocking....

• Weigh in at Weight Watchers!  A little courious that Betty would do this, show a little dirty laundry, political wife and all. Her grass was not greener....but she did lose half a pound! Admitting that the apartment and Megan upset her
• PRODUCT PLACEMENT ? really - a little Dark Shadows reading. Megan's actor pals getting all up in her face by commenting that she is not the poor little actress any more
• Manischewitz! Antisemitism can be funny!   ( keep it cheap, SURPRISE! ) Again Roger looses a pocket full of money!
• Henry up cooking a steak, because Betty is starving him.....A nice moment, but cementing Betty's lament. Henry dumped Rockefeller for Mayor Lindsay.... ooops . Betty give him a nice little pick me up speech... he feeds her a bit of meat...... ( which she counted on tomorrows points! )

Roger and Money - Megan is a little bit of a fish out of water, just like Betty? Sort of grasping for straws here...

• Poor Post LSD Jane, looking all dumped. Ragged watching tv in bed in the middle of the day - Jane knows about Joan ??  Roger and Money - Jane wants a new apartment......The lamp is PURE Jonathan Adler 2012! Everything is black and white in Roger land
• Pete has some odd sex dream with the Gilmore Girl. We found out in scene one of the show that Pete was interviewed for the NYT Sunday Magazine - which he is sure will get him laid
• Domestic bliss. Betty and the kiddies do homework - A found sweet note from Don to Megan sends her a little over the top. DON'T FORGET YOUR DADDIES FIRST WIFE !  WTF !!!  Betty goes all Dick Draper in front of Sally, just to have her ask Megan. Wow, just when you are starting to feel a little sorry for her... This was a little bit shocking
• Selling Snow Balls .....Peggy bitchy again - The gang goes with Michael and Don's ideas. They go all Shelley:

Ozymandias:
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

DAMN!  But Sally the apple did not fall far from the Betty tree.... Full blown spoiled rich girl - Betty did not think that Megan knew anything about Dick Draper. Man, Sally Collins!

• Weight Watchers , Saturday before Thanksgiving. Betty did not lose any weight.....
• Megan tells Don everything and TOTALLY controls him in a way that Betty NEVER could.... the Betty/Sally duo failed , completely.
• Chained to that typewriter Peggy finds out that Michael is working privately for Roger....

WOW, those are some mean mean girls..... sort of making Megan the innocent fawn.

• Sunday Morning.... Pete wont be getting laid, no mention of them in the NYT. " ratbastards" . Don has it out with Sally about Anna. Sally remembers going to her house . Sally stands her ground... but seems to be fine with things.....so so so much back story. 
• Monday Morning : Bitchy Peggy goes off on Roger. " It's every man for himself "
• On the way to sell snowballs, Don chooses his work over Michael's.
• Betty fishing Sally for info on Anna.. Sally lies... This is some hard core waspy  dysfunction. 
• Dinner at Trader Joe's with the Manischewitz people with a POO POO TRAY! The chosen son is a hottie! Jane is impressed.
• Celebration!  The snowball folks loved Don's Ideas

 unrelated rant: 

LAURIE ANDERSON SHOULD NOT BE USED TO SELL CAMERAS !!!

Ok, this could really be building to something.. not really anyplace Betty won't go to twist the knife in Don. Hierarchy!... Roger has no loyalty to Peggy, Don none to Michael.

• In the cab on the way home from the dinner, Roger and Jane make a big mistake ( ROGER! DO NOT HAVE SEX STANDING UP... you make babies )
• Wednesday before : Pete goes nuts on the train.... subtle, " THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER"
• Don and Michael : Wow. Ginsburg pretty much lays in wait for Don in the lobby, hops in the elevator and goes off?!?! ( moxie! ) Says he does not care about Don not using his, he has millions of ideas " good thing you work for me then! - I feel bad for you, says MG. " I don't think about you at all " DD. game and match.
• Jane thinks her new apartment is ruined. Sex killed it.... Not really sure why she is being such a victim.. at all, I think she was a part of it, UNLESS she has really made him feel bad......
• CRANBERRY IN A CAN !!!
• Megan's friend got the Dark Shadows role. SMOG EMERGENCY in NYC - subtle again: New York is Dangerous
• Gather together : Thanksgiving at the Francis'. Betty : "I am thankful that I have everything I want and no one has anything better"

Unhappy days are here again in 1966 New York City!  And the holidays are just starting. Doom doom and more doom ? Everybody was in such a bad mood.....