MAD MEN -- Season FIVE Official Thread (part2)

Continued from here:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=279939

 

But a rocket scientist would know Weiner likes writing this character and is likely the reason Moss has retained second billing since the show's inception. Unless Moss has asked to leave, I would imagine Peggy will continue to play a role in Mad Men either at the agency or at a competing one. IMHO of course.
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Mike Sullivan


>>>>>>Can we get away from this "Featured Billing" nonsense? That has NOTHING to do with how Weiner writes his shows. Weiner always surprises the viewing audience and seems to never go the normal, obvious route.

I dont see any plots with Peggys new Agency competing with Dons. I dont see a merger to make a new powerhouse agency either, as that plot was really already covered when they started the new agency.

I see some good plots with Ginsberg vs. Don. Don is the tried and true experienced exec, but Ginzie is the hotshot rookie. Don will likely try to keep the lids on him.
I think the very fact that that Wiener wrote in the plot that Ginzie came up with the winning Jaguar line was to plant him firmly for major roles in the future. Peggy? I dont see much, if any screen time. What else is there to do with her?

 

I really have no interest in seeing Peggy working for another company.

Shame because I always liked her character. Wonder if it was her idea to distance from the show.

 

Megan's casting call, he was on the sofa. I don't think he had any lines, but Megan did tell Don in the previous scene that the casting director was "a fairy".

I bet Sal re-appears in the last two episodes of this season.

 

I wouldn't mind it as a side plot. I can see them shooting her first day at the new agency the same way they did for her first day at Sterling Cooper, the camera following her down the hall and through the front door of the agency.

 

She's now working for Ted Chaough (how did Roger once pronounce his name?) - She could have just gone to any other agency but Matthew Weiner had her move to Cutler Gleason & Chaough. Remember the Honda pitch, the Robert Kennedy phone call, etc? I'll bet that we will see Peggy (and Ted) at work.
http://madmen.wikia.com/wiki/Ted_Chaough

 

If it was Sal, you seem to be the only one on the planet who caught it...I've listened to three Mad Men podcasts and read about 10 detailed reviews of the ep and no one else mentions it.

 

No, that was not Sal on the couch. I re-watched the episode after you first posted about this.

 

I agree, I was suggesting the opposite. How Weiner writes his show is why the billing is what it is.

I just read this review and it sums up my feelings (more or less) what direction this show may be taking.

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wa...e-other-woman-no-one-knows-she-comes-and-goes

here is an extract.......

Peggy's refusal to budge — to put a price on her dignity and her independence and her belief in herself — leads to the professional break-up we've feared for a long time, and yet one that was inevitable sooner or later. And it leads to an unsurprisingly fantastic scene between Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss, as Don — reeling from what he just learned about Joan, and about the Jaguar pitch — initially assumes it's a negotiating ploy. It isn't — though Don can't help being a ******* even as he thinks it's a negotiation with the "Let's pretend I'm not responsible for every single good thing that's ever happened to you" line — and Peggy says she's going, and going to his hated rival, at that. And all Don can do is kiss her hand as an expression for all he feels about her — a gesture that starts out sweet and then begins to feel sad and lonely and desperate as he doesn't let go — and Peggy again improvises the perfect line for the moment at hand by telling him, "Don't be a stranger."

And lord, do I hope that Matt Weiner means that, because I don't think I can deal with Peggy being sent off to limbo to hang out with Sal and Hare Krishna Paul. We've followed Megan since she left the agency, but only because she's Don's wife. Does the show have time for, and interest in, setting up a parallel narrative at Teddy's shop? It had better, because even though Moss hasn't been quite as consistently prominent this season as she was last year, Peggy has long since become the series' second most-important character. Once upon a time, she was our point of entry into the world of Madison Avenue; now, she's our bellwether of the changing times, continuing to rise even as Don mostly stagnates. The show needs her, not only because of what her experience says about the period, but because she's such a rich character.

But if she's not gone from the show (I hope), she at least gets the perfect exit from SCDP, first with that goodbye scene in Don's office, and then in the way she calmly and quietly gathers the few things she cares about even as the rest of the staff is busy celebrating the Jaguar deal. Only Don knows she's leaving, and only Joan notices she's walking away from the party, but that's okay. Peggy liked these people, but the work is ultimately what drove her, and that's something she'll be able to keep doing at a new agency. She stands in the lobby, alone and looking wistful about all the things she's been through since Joan put her on Don's desk at the start of the decade, but it's not a look of regret. And right before we cut to black, Peggy flashes a confident smile, and the famous opening chords of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me," and we know that she made the right decision — not for money (though Teddy's paying her handsomely), but because this is what she needs to do at this point in her career, even if it inconveniences both her mentor and the guy who created "Mad Men."

 

You're right, my mistake. First time through I thought the guy on the right was Sal, with a little stop-frame action I can see it's not.

 

I figured that was the guy you thought was Sal.

 

One thing to consider in the "Will we see Peggy again/Won't we see Peggy again?" debate is that this show is heading for the home stretch. I had thought that it was a done deal that the show was going to end after seven seasons, but the article below seems to suggest that a seventh season is not absolutely set in stone. And that the man who receives top billing on the show is only signed through the sixth season.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/arts/television/mad-men-pact-reached-by-matthew-weiner-amc-and-lionsgate.html

This article is one year old, so perhaps some of these issues have been resolved, I don't know.

 

Very good observation. Pete has certainly sunk to new depths of detestability this season.

My gut feeling is that the show is going to hit a turning point and we're going to see Don slowly go down the drain. His slight paranoia about the new people outmaneuvering him creatively is only the beginning.

 

Agreed with Marc above.

Personally, I see a few things that may come to pass:

1) Bert passes away suddenly.

2) Roger has one, big, last hoorah, one last big success. He signs a major, major client like Coke or Pepsi.

3) Dons life spirals downward. I *could* see a problem with alcohol or drugs. He seems to ALWAYS be drinking.

4) Pete goes tooo far, and gets thrown out of the Agency by the other partners.

5) Ken becomes a millionaire by writing a huge selling book...about the dishonesty of the Advertising Business!!

6) Joan becomes a hard boiled female exec and turns the biz on its ear.

Just my 2 cents. And worth about as much!!

 

All guesses as good as any. I think the only three people I actually admire in the whole show are Megan (who is honest, smart, and often kind-hearted), Peggy (who's resourceful, quirky, and very bright), and Ken the SF writer. Everybody else has terrible ulterior motives, awful secrets, and/or horrible behavior. [And I excuse Peggy's bizarre pregnancy and out-of-wedlock child.]

 

Megan has some admirable qualities for sure but her weird sadist/masochist routine with Don is very disconcerting. This and his annoyance that she may have to travel for work both make me think that she will outgrow him or end up holding all the cards in the relationship in a couple short years.

 

I'm guessing Megan won't stick with him through the duration of the series. She's already confirmed that she has no interest in having children and is a free spirit unlike Don. It would be neat if she left him towards the end of the series for someone like a young Al Pacino that she meets during one of her off-broadway plays.

 

Megan meets Peggy in a bar they laugh and talk about Don then head for Peggy's for some weed they get intimate then wrestle on the floor, Megan pulls a whip from her purse and ...whoah am I on the internet?

Er..yeah whatever er, nothing to see here...

 

Earlier in the season, I was thinking that Peggy and Megan might become friends - and Don would not like the friendship.

 

I love it any time Ken or Harry get any screen time. They're both well-written characters.

 

My wife just had an interesting theory about the future of Peggy and Don. She thinks that Don is so disgusted about how their firm got the Jaguar account, he will resign and join Peggy's firm. An interesting theory.

 

I dunno if disgust will be the reason, but I halfway suspect that SCDP's days are numbered. Between the prostitution for a gig, and the embezzlement, among other sins, there's a lot of bad karma brewing up. I wouldn't be surprised to see the whole thing come crashing down. They may all be looking for work soon.

 

Don

>>>>>I honestly cant see that happening.

 

Tonights episode: Wild!

One wonders why Lane chose the path he chose.....after all, he basically got away with the embezzlement....no crimminal prosecution and he didnt have to give the money back. A sad end.

I also couldnt help but notice that there wasnt even a single word said about Peggy.
I think that was a confirmation thats its a done deal with the Peggy character.

 

Lane is English and he has his pride and in his mind this was the only solution, as sad at it seems. I don't think the absence of a mention of Peggy is an indication that her character is out of the show. We won't see her in the final episode next week, but I'm not sure we have seen the last of her character, especially since we won't be seeing Lane, anymore.