I finally caught up with this last night. For me it seemed like it was the episode where women don't do what Don Draper wants them to do. Just another sign that his power is slipping, perhaps.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
saw that coming, I guess, but who knew Don would be the little extra shove?
imo, the only difference between Don and what Lane did is that when Don got caught he was given a generous helping of compassion. In so many ways, he's still a clueless, selfish man.
freemonkey, what did Don get caught doing? You mean when Pete told Bert about the Dick Whittman thing? I think there's a significant difference between Don stealing a dead man's identity and Lane's embezzling from the company and forging Don's signature. The latter is a crime specifically committed against the interests of SCDP and Don in particular. Also, Bert wasn't compassionate. He just didn't give a shit because it didn't affect the company.
I still think Don should have just let it go, but I don't think he was a total dick in his handling of it. He gave him the start over pep talk and meant it; he let him resign instead of firing him publicly; he took the hit from Bert about him playing the kid while the rest of the partners keep the company afloat like grown ups.
Something that occurred to me: this is the second time someone hanged himself after Don cut him off. You know Don had to be thinking of Adam in his reaction to Lane's suicide.
I'm going to go watch Lane's greatest hits now (the episode where they screw over PPL and start SCDP, and the one where he and Don spend the day together after Lane's wife gets the wrong flowers) and pour out liquor for my homie. I hated him when he first started on the show, but he became one of my favorites.
Ah, okay. It's true that he's been treated with compassion, or at least consideration, by most everyone (except for Pete in season one and Bert in season three when he blackmailed Don into signing a contract to snag the Hilton account). Even Betty was pretty nice to him about it and she had every reason to tear off his head and piss down his neck.
I still see that as different, though, or at least, I see Don's dealings with Lane as a business decision while the Dick situation is usually personal. (When it has been about business compassion wasn't in the equation, see above examples.) I think Don thought he was cutting Lane a break by letting him resign and by not telling people he embezzled and forged which would have destroyed his hard-won reputation as a great guy with the books.
He also meant what he said about starting over. Don can cut and run on a dime, so he probably couldn't even conceive that someone would envision the prospect as worse than death. Lane flipped PPL the bird, kept the SCDP going when Lucky Strike left and beat the shit out of Pete. The Lane Don knew was way tougher than him.
Ah, okay. It's true that he's been treated with compassion, or at least consideration, by most everyone (except for Pete in season one and Bert in season three when he blackmailed Don into signing a contract to snag the Hilton account). Even Betty was pretty nice to him about it and she had every reason to tear off his head and piss down his neck.
I still see that as different, though, or at least, I see Don's dealings with Lane as a business decision while the Dick situation is usually personal. (When it has been about business compassion wasn't in the equation, see above examples.) I think Don thought he was cutting Lane a break by letting him resign and by not telling people he embezzled and forged which would have destroyed his hard-won reputation as a great guy with the books.
He also meant what he said about starting over. Don can cut and run on a dime, so he probably couldn't even conceive that someone would envision the prospect as worse than death. Lane flipped PPL the bird, kept the SCDP going when Lucky Strike left and beat the shit out of Pete. The Lane Don knew was way tougher than him.
I just want to say that what Don did was illegal and exposure would probably have cost him dearly in the business world for a time. Though, knowing Don, he could probably have spun it as an awesome re-branding campaign.
Does anyone know what song that was over the end credits? There's an instrumental version in Blow-Up, and at first I thought that was what they were playing. I never even knew there was a vocal version. As a dyed-in-the-wool Blow-Up fangirl, I'm thrilled at two references to my movie in this episode.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Why yes, yes it was! Interesting that Lovin' Spoonful is also responsible for the other non-Herbie Hancock snippet of music that didn't make it on the Blow-Up soundtrack. Antonioni must have been a fan.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Matthew Weiner, inspired by a childhood memory of lush, painterly illustrations on T.W.A. flight menus, decided to turn back the promotional clock. He pored over commercial illustration books from the 1960s and ’70s and sent images to the show’s marketing team, which couldn't quite recreate the look he was after.
"Finally," he said, "they just looked up the person who had done all these drawings that I really loved, and they said: 'Hey, we've got the guy who did them. And he's still working. His name is Brian Sanders.'" [...]
"What it did was take me right back, about 50 years," said Mr. Sanders, who added that he was familiar enough with "Mad Men" to be in a bit of disbelief when the show came calling for his drawing board and brushes. The impressionistic image he created uses a scumbled acrylic technique that in its jazzy, textured effects instantly conjures 1960s illustration.
So I've been watching season 1 again in preparation for the season 6 premiere on April 7th (mark your calendars) and I just realized something that was probably completely obvious to everyone else but I didn't notice at all.
You know that episode where Roger eats all those oysters then has to climb the stairs to get back in time for the meeting with the Nixon people and when he finally gets there he hurls like an avalanche of oyster puke at their feet? I've probably watched this episode during marathons at least 3 times, but I never noticed until last night that Don bribes the elevator guy to LIE about the elevator being down for maintenance. He set the whole thing up, playing the good buddy, encouraging the second round of oysters, the martinis, the cheesecake, all to make Roger look at the very least sick and exhausted at the big meeting. It was revenge for Roger macking on Betty.
I guess every other time I saw it, I was distracted by Pete's return to the office with the chip-n-dip rifle so I missed those two seconds before the elevator doors close on Don asking Hollis to do something for him while he peels off bills from a roll in his pocket. Amazing.
I'm glad this thread exists because fb has apparently screwed up my news feed so that Mad Men isn't showing up saying WATCH ME like it has in previous seasons. I would be terribly annoyed not to dvr those suckers. Then, in six months I'll be able to watch them.