[thirtiesgirl]

To some degree, I'm glad Joan got replaced. I think she got a taste of what Peggy has, and having it taken away showed her the value of commanding more respect as a professional (even though the respect given was also very lookist in nature). I hope it will spur her to make some different choices in her life, at least professionally (such as asking for her job back with pay). I think if things had continued as they were, she wouldn't have realized how much she valued the opportunity she'd been given.

And yay for Ms. Draper for standing up to Don and not just letting her feelings blow over.

[girltrouble]

i was so heart broken that joan didn't get that job, and i wanted her to stand up for herself, and demand that job for herself. it's always so awful watching the women getting dead-ended in their careers on the show. i loved the shoulders strap thing. it was like she was dealing with the weight of having to be "joan

i understand why betty did what she did, but i really was thinking it would blow over.

i miss the peggy that doesn't "dress like a little girl."

[erinjane]

It was soo good. I also got to see the first 2 episodes of season 1 tonight. I'm starting to get story lines confused though because I've seen MOST of season 2 but not all, so I'm watching the new episodes, season 2 from the beginning and season 1 from the beginning. Heh, I just couldn't wait. This show has sucked me in almost as bad as six feet under did.

[anna k]

Awwww. Betty saw Jimmy in a TV commercial and he reminded her of the pain, so she called Don and told him not to come home. So he spent the night drinking alone in his office.

Joan rubbed the indentation of her slipdress strap, feeling stressed from not getting the job she wanted at work and living two different lives, as the sexy, collected woman at work and the eager, faithful soon-to-be housewife to her fiance at home.

Peggy soaked in a bath, thinking about the priest's words about attending Communion, while he sat in his room and played a Peter, Paul, and Mary song which closed out the show.

It was a great episode.

[candycane_girl]

Daaaaamn, tonight's show was kind of epic! I loved seeing Betty finally stand up to Don. I had the last 10 minutes on mute though cause I got a phone call. Can anyone tell me what happened?

[gluelita]

re: entitled, now i am thinkin' the gas guzzler of a car goes along with the littering.

[lananans]

So maybe there IS more to the littering thing than I thought...

The last few seconds were pretty funny, and shocking. Finally someone standing up to Don...

I feel bad for Kitty - she probably knows deep down, but what is she supposed to do about it really, she probably feels trapped, more than anything. A lot like Betty.

[kari]

I thought the episode was quite interesting too.

I was very shocked by the last few seconds!

Jimmy stirred up that pot, didn't he? Poor Betty, is she just so blind?

Joan....I thought she was going to strangle Jane. Jane's the only woman in the office who will stand up to Joan. And then she went to Sterling, who appears to be interested in her, which is no doubt making Joan jealous.

I noticed that despite Peggy's stepping out at the club last week, she's back to her usual drab work garb.

I think the story line of Don being asked to sit on that board is very interesting. He's moving up in the world, and is trying to get comfortable with it.

They never did go back to the woman he encountered as a car salesman, did they? Hmmm.

Sal & his wife, it's just sad. Do you think she knows he's gay? I thought she did, from the look on her face when he & Ken were interacting, but now am not so sure. I feel bad for Kitty.

I know, the littering took me by surprise. I think like you all have said, it's just a little something extra to make the show authentic to the time period. I did notice, however, that that scene came right after Don & Betty's being asked by Sally if they were rich. Maybe I'm giving that too much attention & everyone back then littered, but it seemed to me that Don & Betty are becoming more and more upper class, and thus, entitled.

[thirtiesgirl]

I love that she barfed in the shiny new car. Excellent. And I loved the Jane/Joan semi-standoff. Jimmy The Comic finally went up in my estimation a notch or two, as well.

[gluelita]

yes, i thought she would say something. is that what surprised you?

[candycane_girl]

I just have to chime in on the litter thing. I noticed that they add a lot of those little details into the show. Like in the first season when the daughter was playing with a plastic bag over her head and instead of getting angry that she could suffocate Betty was just like "that better not be the bag from my dry-cleaning!" Plus wasn't there a pregnant friend who was always smoking? I like that they add this kind of stuff, just little details to remind us of what it was like back then.

Was anyone else a little shocked at the last few seconds of the show?

[gluelita]

i guess i just think so much of this show is about illustrating how we got to where we are from were we were. the enviornmental movement definitely seemed to have sprung from the realization of how we had casually tossed pollution all over the place and the fallout of that course of action. besides, what would Don do (WWDD) if he had to rep a pesticide company? spin, spin, spin. and what would the consequences be? additionally, aren't they in 1962? looks like that is the year Silent Spring came out. i'm just sayin'.

incidentally, on the topic of how we got where we are, i had a thought about bras inspired by the Maidenform episode and Project Runway. this may or may not be disproven elsewhere, but i thought about how they used to wear those bullet/ish bras and the enhancement it provided to their shape. then the Sally generation comes, and bra-burning and the shift towards comfort for oneself vs. merely display for others starts to surface. however, this changes the silhouette. wouldn't the average woman need to be smaller on the bottom to preserve an "appealing" shape now that the padding/shaping on the top is not balancing her out? so, in a sense, i can see where models moved towards the thinner side of the spectrum. if you watch PR, silhouette counts for a lot. like i said, not sure of the validity of that, but it does seem to fit into a Beauty Myth vision of things that the constraints of garments were traded for the constraints of popular images. (maybe Wolf even made that point, i can't remember).

[lananans]

I noticed the littering too - I guess back then people just didn't think about it like we do today.. I'm not sure that it had anything to do with subtext either though...

I think Betty needs to have an affair. A torrid steamy affair where she has lots and lots and lots of sex. Wild sex.

And does anyone else think that Jane could start to threaten Joan's supremacy in the office, with Joan getting married, maybe Jane is being set up to become Queen Bee?

Also - they didn't go into detail with the lady who showed up to see Don back when he was a car salesman! I wonder what's going on there...

[moxiegirl]

but, that's just the point. they "seem" happy. Don't unhappy b/c nothing satisfies him; and betty's unhappy b/c nothing is around to satisfy her. The whole SDS thing... just BE...way 60s, right?

I don't think the littering had anything specific to do with the subtext, but was more of a "background" thing like the smoking. It was just before we all didn't litter.

[erinjane]

I actually thought the litter thing was very interesting. I think they really do a lot on this show to make sure they're being historically accurate. Like the headlights on the car. Oddly, I was just reading an article on those types of headlights. My brother gets a subscription to NewScientist and they were talking about how people were being killed because they were blinded by headlights and how many lives were saved when they came up with the dimming lights.

Last nights episode made me sad because Betty and Don seemed quite happy until the end.

[gluelita]

so...last night's episode. the golden violin that "looked perfect but made no music". what was it that's dysfunctional beneath a lovely veneer? don, his family and marriage, sal and his marriage, even dearest joan. then there are the seeds of desire to cast off what looks perfect...jimmy scratching at the truth, the rothko painting, the coffee jingle/song, even jane perhaps (casting off the idea of propriety and being feisty).

i was really irritated by the litter. was that supposed to be a comment about society in general making no music? pointless destruction beneath the bucolic vision of The American Dream?

it also seemed to carry on last week's theme. the men are just as much divided between Jackie and Marilyn as the women with their double lives.

[lananans]

I think it's kinda cool how everyone, male or female loves Joan, and is just enthralled by her, myself included. And I find that after watching the show I'm really into 60's fashion. I watched Goodfellas last night with my boyfriend and there were some cool dresses there too. But nobody pulls it off quite like Joan.

[kittenb]

Oh, I remember. Firefly was the first DVD set I ever bought.

[thirtiesgirl]

Pardon the digression from the discussion of Mad Men, but I just thought I'd mention that the actor who plays Joan on the show was also in a couple episodes of Firefly, Joss Whedon's sci-fi/western hybrid tv show that only lasted 1 season. She was just as gorgeous and more wicked on Firefly, although she didn't have the gorgeous wardrobe (that electric royal blue skirt suit she wore in the last episode ~ hotchacha!).

[kittenb]

Peeking into the thread and not reading anything...or trying not to...

I am just starting to watch Mad Men. I am NetFlixing the first season. I just watched the episode where they had the "chickens" (women) test market lipstick. It was so infuriating! The men were standing behind the one-way mirror acting like the women were apes in a zoo only less intelligent.

This show just has me enthralled.

ETA: regarding Joan, I have never so badly wanted to touch a woman. I swear she is right up there with Katee Sackhoff in my heart.