MAD MEN -- Season FIVE Official Thread (part2)

There's usually a life ins policy bought on each partner to pay off the spouse upon the partner's death because the last thing you want is a spouse as one of your partners with no way to buy them out.

 

Do they usually cover suicides?

 

Pete did mention on the train that the insurance covers suicide after two years. . . an interesting bit of foreshadowing.

 

And it's possible it won't be all tragedy. I'm actually kind of hoping, with the deaths and departures out of the way, that the finale is a little more "fun" than the last few episodes. Don't get me wrong, darkness is an inherent part of the show and these have been outstanding episodes. I just don't think we have to assume the finale will "top" things by being more tragic.

 

Dish is keeping AMC until at least June 30 so you and I will get to see the season finale. Dish was not too happy about AMC's messages during Mad Men and ending up relocating the channel as a result:

AMC, previously parked at channel 130, was exiled to channel 9609. IFC dropped from 131 to 9608 while We TV sank from 128 to 9607.

 

He's the son of Matthew Weiner (executive producer). This explains a lot.

 

Yeah, it's as if he only has that job because he's related to somebody who runs the show. I don't mind him being creepy, but he can't act worth a crap. The little girl, Sally, is very good, and I buy her performance 100%.

BTW, I think this was a great episode, without a single wasted moment.

When they went five minutes without showing the body, I thought, "wow, that's remarkably restrained that they're not gonna show a body that's been dead for over 24 hours." Then there it was. Yikes...

Very, very, very good timing on the part of Weiner and the other writers & producers. And the whole deal with the Jaguar not starting was the blackest of black comedies.

No bloody way. This show is going down a very dark drain, bleak and black.

 

Sure seems like it. Kind of strange , tho, that they dropped the Lane bombshell BEFORE the finale.

 

I actually think the Weiner fellow acts well enough.

 

I think the kid that plays Glen acts just fine. He's supposed to be a quirky, kind of detached, outsider of a kid - I think he nails it.

 

I can't believe Ken Cosgrove turned down Roger's suggestion of partnership at the firm.

But Ken said if Sterling Cooper got his father-in-law's business, he wanted to be 'forced' onto the account.

Can someone remind me why Ken does not want to tap into his father-in-law for business? Wasn't this more fleshed out in prior seasons?

 

Don't forget the elevator shaft!

I'll be very surprised if somebody doesn't drop right down it in the season finale. For all I know, the Dow Chemical guys will come over, get wined and dined, agree to a deal, then the president steps in the shaft and plummets 37 stories. That would cast a rather gloomy pall over the occasion...

 

I thought Ken explained his disinterest in partnership quite well when he told Roger that he had seen what's involved (a thinly veiled dig at Joan's path to partner).

Ken explained last season that he didn't want work to interfere with his real life when he refused the partners' request to hit up his father-in-law. Ken seems to put a premium on work/life balance and has much healthier outlook on life than most of the other characters at SCDP.

 

This isn't "The Sopranos"...they've gotten grisly twice in five seasons, they're not going to do it in back-to-back weeks.

 

Aw, come on -- it'd be a great WTF moment to end the season!

 

Heck yeah! One of the many reasons I love this show is that anything can happen

 

It might be Joan but I think it's probably Peggy. Remember they had a pact? He watched what happened to her. Also it was Roger that forced him to hide his writing.

 

Quite a shocker there with Lane. Loved the Jaq not starting....

Their really shaking things up lately...

Looking forward to the final...

 

When do they drop the "P"?

 

Jeez they're passing out partnerships like halloween treats now.

 

Maybe Ken doesn't want the scummy social aspects of the business to touch his family? The strip bars, sex with secretaries, Playboy Club type thing. That would also partly explain his insistence on excluding Pete. Or he doesn't want to learn what his father-in-law's own scummy habits are.

 

That would be fun. The shaft would also be a good way to deal with Megan.

 

i'd take that as a subtle commentary on the industry's long history of bestowing partnerships based on short-term considerations (a quick acct, the prospect of better position on a big acct) . . . my experience has been that's it's pretty accurate.

 

not to be name-dropping (heh), but noir novelist George Pelecanos who worked on the Wire and Treme, says the penultimate (next to last) episode is the as coveted, if not most coveted: it tends to be action-packed, tying up loose ends and/or perfectly setting characters and plot points for the final payoff.

does seem to make sense . . . can you imagine the jockeying for position on that one season of the wire when the writing room included pelecanos, richard price AND dennis lehane, not to mention creator david simon?

i digress . . . i think Mad Men already holds up as one of the 4 or 5 most satisfying episodic dramas ever created for TV, and HBO's "pass" on it will go down as one of the biggest misses in TV history . . . Weiner's only 47--wonder what he'll do for a 2nd act?

d.r.

 

What everyone else said, plus I remember Ken saying he actually loves his wife and he doesn't want a business relationship with his father-in-law to come in between him and his wife, like it does with Pete and Trudy at times.