Matt always says that Episode 5 is where any television show really kicks off. He uses the college visit episode of Sopranos, which was episode 1.05, as an example, it’s where you really understand who Tony Soprano is and what the show is about.
Season 1 kicked into high gear with 5G; we meet Adam and learn who Don is in a new way. Peggy, too, learns about Don and about herself.
Season 2 had a shaky beginning. For Those Who Think Young didn’t work for me. Flight 1 was genius. The next two episodes were very good, but didn’t bring it home. But 2.05 was The New Girl, and wham bang zoom! Mad Men was back.
Sunday, September 13 is episode 3.05. Can’t. Wait. I just know it’s going to knock us dead.
(By the way, AMC’s schedule says “The Fog” is episode 3.05 and “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” is episode 3.06, but their main Mad Men page has “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” as episode 3.05. I have no fucking idea. Update: 3.05 is definitely “The Fog.”)
23 Responses to “Watch out for next week!”
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I was thinking the same thing about episode fives. 5G and New Girl were definitely the eps that got me pumped for the rest of those respective seasons. I'd love some revelations like the Adam story and Peggy's flashback next week. Eps 1-4 in every season so far seem to be a slow set up of focusing on the characters and themes.
The preview they're running says it's The Fog. Unless they screwed that up too.
Very confusing when their own website can't get it right.
Agreed. I noticed that when re-watching 1&2 while waiting for 3 to start up. Very much the opening chapters of a novel in feeling. This year is very much a slow burn…the anticipation is killing me! I seriously do not understand those who complain about the pacing only 3 episodes in, and claim that nothing is happening. There is so much going on, and you can sense things catching fire, slowly…deliberately. I am a little worried (kidding) that season 3 epsd 13 will gut me entirely, given the example of the past two seasons.
For those who think young was a let down for me as well, but on repeat viewings I am fine with it being a building block. Flight one hooked me entirely.
It needs to be Sunday again already.
Agreed with everything in this thread. I'm very excited about this week's ep.
This is my first season watching the show live. I got talked into renting the DVD by a friend who would go on and on about the show. Rented the first disc. Liked it. Rented the second. Loved it. Went to rent the third and there was no available copy to rent, rushed over to Target to buy the Season 1 set so I could know what happened. Then had to go buy Season 2. It's hard waiting a week to get my next episode fix!
It's interesting that the 5th episode is pivotal to MW. I also know 11-13 are important to him as well.
As for the pacing, it doesn't seem slow to me storywise as we've had some HUGE character movement in these 5 episodes, particularly with Sal, Peggy and Sally. It's the actual time that seems so slow. We're really simmering in a few short weeks here for a good number of episodes.
I can't get behind the nothing happened folks. Sal had gay sex and got a functional promotion. Peggy had a one-night stand and smoked pot. Gene moved in with the Drapers and then died. Jane got drunk and publicly humiliated Betty.
Maybe the "nothing is happening" crowd should just wait till the end of the season and watch the episodes strung all together? They need broad strokes…from a show that doesn't do that and never has. To borrow breakup vernacular, It's not Mad Men, it's them.
I think people are just wired differently. Contrary to logic, I tend to zone out during fight scenes and car chases. Even my love of Buffy has little to do with details of actual fights — except if they're iconic for other reasons. Action films are often my version of nothing happening. As is a football game.
Mad Men has never been my idea of nothing happening. The fact that we do endlessly talk about this episodes and still have more to say proves that for a viewer willing to really watch, there's a lot going on.
BTW, the five-ep rule doesn't originate with Matt. It's also how many shows Lorne Michaels told NBC he would need to find the balance for SNL, to which the exec (whose name escapes me and the book is not with me) replied, "Then I'll watch the fifth show."
I don';t feel like enough has happened with Betty yet, I feel like there is a build up to something beyond the impending birth.
I think a lot of people are pissed that there hasn't been any big Pete/Peggy action (or Joan, for that matter). I think the first three episodes were a bit slow this season, but The Arrangements was great.
JS, I feel so bad for Betty lately! It seems like all the progress she made last season in asserting herself has totally fallen by the wayside. She seems more depressed this season than ever, and I think the baby is only going to confound that.
In regards to the original post, I've been thinking the same thing. 5G was the episode that got me hooked in the first season. I went from watching the re-broadcasts Sunday afternoon to having to stay up late (I'm on Atlantic time, an hour later than EST) for the original air dates for the rest of the season. Also The New Girl was another "OMG" episode for me, the flashbacks…Anita was pregnant!, Don's advice…it blew me away.
So I'm in the same camp…I can't wait for 3.05, so excited.
(btw, love the site, I've been camped out here since just before season 2…I'm a rarely post/constantly check for updates follower
)
I'm afraid the 5 episode rule doesn't apply to Saturday Night Live.
It was apparent to everyone who saw the first skit, that this was now the time for something completely differen: a cold opening in which an English language professor is finding sentences to "immigrant" John Belushi:
"Professor: Let us begin. Repeat after me.
[ European Immigrant in tight-mouthed concentration, nods ]
Professor: I would like…..
European Immigrant: [ in thick accent ] I would like….
Professor: ….to feed your fingertips….
European Immigrant: [ in thick accent] ….to feed yur fingerteeps….
Professor: …to the wolverines.
European Immigrant: [ in thick accent ] ….to de wolver-eenes…"
Especially to us comedy-junkies, it was apparent this was nothing less than a revolution.
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75awolverines.pht…
Forgive me if this was covered in another thread, but do we know yet how close we are to Betty's delivery episode? I mean, I've felt like a lot has been happening so far this season, and Old Kentucky Home seemed to me as intensely written as The Gold Violin, I don't feel like anything's missing … but if anyone's expecting big plot explosions in the near future, a new baby would qualify, wouldn't it? 'specially considering how fragile Betty and Sally are at this point. Some pretty substantial adjustments are coming up, and that's if the baby is healthy …
We don't know for a fact, zatopa, but I would put good money on the table that Betty will give birth between episodes. We have calculated her due date as June 28, and The Arrangements ended on June 11, so it's close.
No more Mr. Nice Guy! What's up with Don? He's not womanizing, he's being nothing but gracious to Betty, he's advising clients on their best interest, he's not only turning a blind eye to a colleague's penchant for bellhops but promoting the guy… What is this, Father Knows Best? I went totally gay for Don Draper for the last two seasons for this? I, for one, hope to see a return of the Dark Side in episode 5. Let's hope your theory is right!
I would have to think Betty is coming right up on her due date, if the last episode already has them in June. She does seem (even) more irritable than usual, but that's believable in her condition. I hate it when shows and movies show a woman very pregnant and she doesn't act any different from usual ever. I'll be surprised if she doesn't give birth this week.
And yes, "The Wolverines"! Great stuff! Although the rest of that episode was a lot more conventional, at least as far as the cast members' sketches were concerned (George Carlin and Andy Kaufman made a much more indelible impression). And the second episode was basically a Simon and Garfunkel reunion — nice, but not what SNL is remembered for. It took a while before the show was that distinctive all the way through.
Keep in mind that George Carlin was also not the usual comedy host, and Andy Kaufman was something from Mars.
I first saw Andy Kaufman at an open mike in the Improv in New York in the early '70s: talk about an indelible impression.
Kaufman was like nothing else I'd ever seen: the Elvis, the Mighty Mouse song.
Extremely funny and unforgettable: I remembered his name from that otherwise forgettable evening, until wham! he ended up on TV, the last place one would have thought his comedy would end up, until Saturday Night Live changed the very idea of TV comedy.
In the meantime, does anyone see Mad Men losing viewers?
I notice the precise opposite. One of my best friends from the old job got hooked; now she wants to know if there are any SF-based watching parties for the marathon. Another close friend wants to borrow my Season 1 DVDs first and then Season 2, "as soon as possible", to catch up.
My sister and new poster here at the Basket, MTSutton, is doing her part — I think she has my sister-in-law involved with it now. And the coolest person I know, the older of my two stepdaughters, is into it. She also wants an inventory of my DVDs so she can catch up with all the back stories in the off season.
My kid will be 19 this fall. 19! I think it's the Sal Factor that pulled her in, but I can't be sure (she came out in her junior year of high school). I'm thinking I'll just get her her own sets of DVDs … a good idea, yes, for a Lit/Film double major?
I'm so stinking proud of that girl.
And this show.
All your smarty pant are belong to us, America!
#18
I agree, my dvd's are in very high demand at work, I haven't had my season 1 dvd's to myself for months.
I came to Mad Men a little bit late–(watched DVD's of the first season while my husband took the kids camping!) so I came to the show thinking of it as all of a piece, with the episodes like chapters in a novel. I have no doubt certain Victorians were as hungry for each installment of Dickens' Bleak House in the newspaper as we, with our hangovers from the late 20th century, are for each Mad Men episode.
At the risk of sounding as grandiose as Ho-Ho, I feel like Mad Men is TV meeting its full potential, and the Basket of Kisses blog is the Internet at its full potential.
I love the show's nuances, I love the perceived character personality inconsistencies… the show sticks with you all week and at moments, you'll be lucky to have an 'a-ha' moment…only to have it replaced with a "well, then again, maybe not" moment…
Terrific stuff…wish I were lucky enough to be part of the team putting this gem on the airwaves!
I've been pushing my Season One DVDs on anyone who will listen to me! So far, only one taker (although I gave two friends NO choice by giving them their own Season One sets. I don't think either has watched, yet.)
I adore the pacing of this show! This is by far the most nuanced work of television I've ever seen, and having "plot" points dribbled out over a long period of time is delicious and creates a sense of realism; this feels like a real world, populated by real people in real time.
I have to say, my enjoyment of this show is multiplied by having a number of excellent web-sites/blogs to read after I've viewed the show. As an old English major (current college English teacher), one of my great pleasures in life is discussing and analyzing a text, and Mad Men is a rich text, so very worthy of the close scrutiny it gets. This blog, Project Rungay, Television Without Pity, AV Club and a few other sites really demonstrate to me that there are many people out there who find similar joy in dissecting a work of art and delving into subtext with glee! Yippee!