Basket of Kisses

Occasionally on Mad Men, I am not sure if I’m supposed to like certain characters or not. Betty’s sister-in-law Judy is a good example. Betty sometimes acted as if Judy was manipulative, but I never saw Judy act anything but helpful and sweet, and in a very genuine way. So I don’t know if it [...]

All month is our Basket of Kisses Beauty Makeover Holiday Season Fundraiser! If you enjoy our blog, please consider a donation. In our newest feature, Mad Through the Seasons, we’re playing with different themes, characters, things that appear in each of the four seasons. We’re gathering old posts that fit the theme, or go back [...]

Welcome to our next installation of our Basket of Kisses Beauty Makeover Holiday Season Fundraiser! We thought we would put the fun in fundraiser by approaching different characters, scenarios or themes via revisits to old posts, one per season. So today we’re taking a look at the four season openers: S1 Smoke Gets in Your [...]

November 1,2011. I had a funny experience today.  While at a favorite antique shop today with my darling mother, I was taking in all the nostalgia around me when my eyes fell on a strangely familiar doll.  It had up-swept blond hair,  and a luxuriant, strapless pale blue brocade gown. “That doll looks like Betty [...]

Guest post by Nathaniel R: Mad Men at the Movies ran at The Film Experience and is being posted here in conjunction with re-airings of episodes. Mad Men @ The Movies looks at the many film references in the Emmy winning series. Episode 2.2 “Flight 1″ The staff of Sterling Cooper have reluctantly trekked out [...]

We continue looking back at posts on the episodes AMC has been marathoning on Sunday mornings: B. Cooper gives us one of his legendary Not-so-live bloggings on the episode. Deb and I each have our own little observation. It’s the small stuff, y’know? I look at the cycles (ahem) Betty has experienced that were her [...]

Every Sunday morning, AMC airs three episodes of Mad Men. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we revisit our favorite posts about those three episodes. Today it’s The Mountain King, episode 2.12. This is an intense episode. We talk about rape and about how Joan deals with it. B. Cooper compares Joan’s rape to one that [...]

This morning, we close out Season 2 (brilliantly) and open Season 3 (brilliantly). The Mountain King, Meditations in an Emergency, and Out of Town. Discuss!

Some of our favorite posts on the Jet Set: The hallucinogenic feel of the episode hearkens the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. Some background on the Palm Springs house. Deborah does one of her great which-film-director-is-being-evoked pieces. And one of our little language/shadow observations. The 1962 Aeorspace Convention in Santa Monica.

Some of our oldies but goodies on this Season Two episode: I definitely saw something that not everyone agrees with (not even Matt, ftr). Deborah sees Hitchcock all over this episode. And she got a little obsessed over the butt-uggly jardiniere. A new look for Don. Karl, in a hindsight-is-20/20-titled post, takes a look back [...]

For those of you following along at home, you know that we are posting “best-of” writings from the past, tracking with the previous weekends AMC marathon airing. We are moving along through Season Two. Six Month Leave is such a precious episode to me. First of all, I had the privilege of interviewing Joel Murray. [...]

…or “remembered.” Here’s some of the stuff we’ve said about the episode. We researched the plot lines Joan was reading. Be sure to read the comments if you’re interested, some Basketcases did better research than I did. Basketwriter Ms. Darkly reflects on Betty’s embarrassment. But, did Don really set Betty up? Some of Roberta’s best [...]

Here’s our walk down memory lane for today: Posts about The Gold Violin, which was rebroadcast this weekend. Things that don’t make music. B. Cooper discusses the narrative purpose of the Barretts. This is interesting. We’re at the halfway point of the season and speculating on who might be the mysterious recipient of the book [...]