Comments on: Rude Awakenings

By: RetroGirl

RetroGirl — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:48:40 +0000

@ 250 Dark Peggy- I see your point now. Sally being a Stones fan was totally unrelated to rebellion.

By: less of me

less of me — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:27:21 +0000

"I think she's got it, by Jove I think she's got it."
Are you tired after that? The stream of consciousness flows swiftly.

re: that special episode, the monkeys are tame; Trudy and Betty, not so much. They all wear blue to start, naturally.

Oh and another thing. The pirate snuff film logically morphs of course into the undead zombie pirate film. You left that out earlier, smart stuff!

By: esme

esme — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:13:59 +0000

This woman's voice soothes my soul.

Cat Power on Jools Holland.

Once I wanted to be the greatest
No wind or water fall could stall me
And then came the rush of the flood
The stars at night turned deep to dust…

apropos to nothing.

By: esme

esme — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:49:14 +0000

sorry Suzanne. the credit sequence also reminds me of Blade Runner with the huge smiling adverts. but it's too bright to be quite that dystopian. Or a tragedy of real life.

l-o-m – the jump from Trudy to Betty to monkey sex sounds like a very special episode of the show inside your head.

I thought Trudy reminded Don of the every day grace we can bring to life… and that wishing Betty well was his way to attain a moment of grace. As creepy as Pete is, he loves Trudy and she reciprocates. Unlike Don, who was relived when Betty asked him to move out in S2. Or Betty, who has decided she'll be relived to be without him, too.

I really love the Trudy character because she is so relentlessly happy but it doesn't make you want to roll your eyes at her. that's pretty amazing, for me.

okay, so here's how it went down in Six Month Leave. Marilyn Monroe died. Jane went to Roger to keep from getting fired and they started to start to have an affair. Joan knew this was on its way b/c she knows Roger. And Jane's m.o. Jane was going for the bosses. don or roger. (no guy who writes shorts stories for her. I loved that look she gave Ken in the elevator…but that's another episode.) Speaking of…Betty had confronted Don about his affair with Bobby, so Don was staying at the Roosevelt. Jane got a call from Sally and tried to insinuate herself into Don's personal life and he shut her down. Later she (I loved this part) got Don more shirts… from Menken's! … and Don was mightily skiiiiived since she was also trying to fix him breakfast. Rumson pissed his pants and Pete and Duck (duck, goose) got him fired b/c of. btw, that was a great lampshade in Freddy's office behind Pete. Is there a reason why the designated drunkard had the best lampshade? Sterling and Don took Freddy out for a night because he got fired. (Jane had told Roger that Don was staying at the Roosevelt, because, when they're making plans to take Don out, Roger pointedly asks if Don needs to call the misses and Don knows Jane was talking about him to Roger. Jane, bad idea. Just ask Bobbie.) Heartbreaking and killer series of scenes and Freddie gets into that taxi forever. Sterling confronts Don about being on the outs with Betty. Don talks about this being "your life" like the big "you" and Roger, apparently, takes this to his recently messed up heart. "You have to move forward." Mona does a lioness prowl into Don's office because Roger used Don's words as a way to back up his decision to leave Mona. Roger. bad form. Mona thinks Roger is leaving her for HIS secretary. Don's all "huh?" Mona leaves and Roger comforts Jane, who starts crying and Don gets that both Sterling and Jane have seriously messed with his boundaries and Don tells Roger he wants Jane off his desk.

so, yeah, Roger made it sound like Don was giving advice to Roger when Don was talking about life in general and himself in particular but not Roger leaving Mona for Jane "Rumson" – and that's sort of poetical-ish irony that Roger was sort of snarky with Freddy about how Roger's dad was funny drunk to the adults but not the Roger kid and then Roger falls in love with the drunk girl.

By: less of me

less of me — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:41:37 +0000

And if I may make a tepid, vague defense of the snuff film hypothetical, it was that or an Auschwitz allegory. Things were heated. I was tired. I gamed out the rhetorical scenarios and felt I might just as well go thermonuclear; turn the whole place to glass. Declare victory, depart the field, get a Fresca, move to another blog.
But Rosenfreude seized the initiative and made my point, very succinctly, before the fail/safe marker.

The Draper Showdown was very, eerily personal for me and my dander was up.

By: Anne B

Anne B — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:05:02 +0000

l-o-m.

Silly. I wear the patch on the OTHER eye.

By: less of me

less of me — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:00:15 +0000

So we're out in the back forty of the Whitman spread talking of Roger now?
How'd that happen? These blood drenched fields remind me of Shiloh.

A quick Roger-ing if I may. And Happy Christmas.

Roger really mentored Dick/Don into Don Draper. Don was writing copy and still wet behind the ears and probably still dry in the liver too. Don followed Roger's lead; copied all the manly affectations, developed the cynicism and skirt chasing, bought his way into the GoodLife and still wasn't happy. Don begins to resent the Glib One, especially as he eventually sees Roger is not happy either. Don the former used carsalesman realizes he bought a lemon of a role model in RS. But at the bar in Six Months Leave, Roger takes Don's philosophizing as solemn advice thereby switching roles with the Alpha Role Switcher himself. Mentee is now unintentional Mentor. Roger decides to reverse those roles, break the pact and radically pursue Happiness, leaving Don feeling burned and responsible. This resentment just grows from there. And I think DD isn't even really specifically certain why he dislikes RS. They're more on equal footing now, it could be fun to watch.
—————
Anne B, you've been released! You are in good company.

The Corleones made it out of NYC somewhat successfully, but it kept pulling Michael back in.

The Giants and the Dodgers both got out and had some fun in the sun. (though the Large Guys without the LARGE guy haven't been the same)

And of course, we can't forget this guy.

Welcome back Snake P Anne B!

And she brings the goods too! @277. I'll throw in another two centavos and go a little further. Just theory but that smile when Don sees Trudy reminds him a specific Betty moment we have not been privy to, probably in the Year One of the Drapers before she got pregnant and before he started to calcify in MadManDon. She brings him a sandwich when he is actually working late in his new job at SC, they eat, they talk, they make Teh Hawt passionate monkey-love on a ragged sofa. Life is good. For a while.

esme– @278 answering with worn pop lyrics again, (it's my go-to pitch)
"Maybe the time has drawn the faces I recall
But things in this life change very slowly,
if they ever change at all
There's no use in asking why,
it just turned out that way
So meet me at midnight baby
inside the Sad Cafe.

Two steps forward, one step back.

Sorry for verbosity and overlap, Dial -up BLOWS!!

By: Suzanne Mills

Suzanne Mills — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:40:49 +0000

You’re welcome Falafel! I originally thought Don uttered “the little shit” comment, and I drew my conclusions from that statement. On replay, because someone on this blog pointed it out, I saw it was Roger who made the comment. I have a thought about Don and his relationships with people. It is hard, in general, to assess whether he now respects Pete or others b/c he really has had no relationships on this show to observe. In other words, having never really seen him be a good friend or value others, it is hard to tell when or if he is starting to do just that. He has had no male friends (other than Roger for a short time, whom Don turned on very quickly once Don started “to judge” him for marrying Jane), and even Roger couldn’t get through b/c Don is “so secretive.” I loved Roger calling him out during the final episode on his inability to have relationships: â€œYou donâ€™t value relationships because you are no good at them.â€ Maybe his friendship w/Roger can start again- I loved their interactions & their comradery (albeit it always seems to be taking place in a bar). I think Roger was always trying to get close to Don and figure him out… he was trying to figure out where he was from, why he dropped his Rs, etc. Roger is a people person (and now I understand what an account person is)…but poor Don is not. I hope he can become one.

By: Suzanne Mills

Suzanne Mills — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:29:51 +0000

278 Esme. Oh no, yuck, sadness, I never put the Don jump/fall in the opening credits scene in connection with the shadows of September 11/people jumping out of those buildings here in NYC. Interesting…. However, I have to wipe that image out of my mind now, or it will just make me sad…..

By: esme

esme — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:17:25 +0000

274 – careful. or anne b will give you a go round like you've never had before.

goodsally – I don't know if there is anything redemptive about this show. maybe. maybe that's a goal but I have never gotten the impression that the show aims for "growth." I do think it aims for a look at "change."

going back to the very first impression of the series, the opening credits, I always see that as a moment when the ground shifts beneath Don's feet. The shadow of the horrors of 9-11 are there in that fall as well, to me, but are not literally referenced.

I've read some people see that opening sequence as a jump. I see it as a fall.

And the interesting thing is that Don ends up surviving without seeming to change all that much.