Communicator (communicator) wrote,
Communicator
communicator

Mad Men 5.1

The return of Mad Men has produced a flurry of media activity. Reporters and professional reviewers think that Mad Men is about (1) Glamorous clothes! (2) There used to be smoking and racism! If they are writing in the Guardian there is also agonising about women's rights.

Yet I look at at this discussion on livejournal, and this discussion on metafilter, and see more complex and nuanced views of the season premier by the fans.

There was some great dancing on this week's show. If you follow that lj link the main post has some brilliant gifs of the moves. Here is the full and celebrated Zou Bisou Bisou number (soon to be released as a single). But my favourite, on consideration, was Lane dancing alone for Joan in his office, to stop her from crying. I can't find that yet on You Tube. ETA - have stolen a gif to make an icon.

When a show like this has been on the box for so many years every single scene is packed with significators, and I think it's hard to know how best to review it. Like that scene I have linked to above. There's the overt spectacle. There's the obvious story - Megan has misjudged Don and he is miserable. And the quick view of all the other members of the cast each image tells us a little bit about them - Roger bitter, Harry immature, Lane open, Joan worried.

In the metafilter discussion someone spoke about Roger Stirling's three words 'There's my baby!' He said that to Joan when she came to the office pushing a pram. What is he thinking of? Can he not resist making a widely inappropriate joke? Does he think nobody is clever enough to figure it out? Is he such a sociopath that he literally doesn't care about Joan's feelings? Is he on some self-destructive bender? Does he even think about what he is saying? Is he drunk? All this from three words. And by the time half of it has registered you are on to the next scene.

A lot of predictions have been made about the season ahead. I think Lane is going to have a very interesting story, with various emotional entanglements. He certainly has had a wee bit of a crush on Don in the past, and on Joan, and it would be so cool if they had a threesome, but I will have to wait and see.
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