"Time Zones"
Ken is spread pretty thin at this point. If Ken's journey lately is an allegory for Vietnam, then he's suffering from PTSD at this point, yelling at his office and popping an aspirin, or something. He's normally the calmest person around, like when Lane promoted him to co-heads of accounts and he coolly lights a cigarette and asks what it pays (in contrast to Pete). Ken's never wanted a partnership and prefers time at home to his writing than all night boozing with clients, so it's unsettling to see him so rattled. He's also showing us how thin SC & P is spread and how he's fighting a losing battle.
Lou Avery seems like a total hack who not only doesn't pick up on the best idea available but can't communicate his own thoughts clearly. Very helpful for someone in advertising. Not only that but he's the type who makes lame jokes and expects you to laugh at them. Or thinks there's something wrong with you or your sense of humor if you don't. His mediocrity seems to be seeping into the creative and art department, which Peggy puts out. Can you blame them? Why fight it? The larger the agency becomes the less important any individual becomes, and the less important the quality of work becomes, as scale outweighs skill.
Edit 4/17
Using the rough approximation of one episode covering one month, which as been the practice so far, the series would end in 15 months, which would put it right around the Kent State shootings in May 1970 (assuming there's no time jump between these eight and next year's eight).
While last season, 1968, conveyed the bloodiest year of the War in Vietnam, it was not until December 1969 that the first draft lottery was held. This was in contrast to a general belief that the war was winding down when in fact it lasted until 1974. The draft would come on the heals of the exposure of the May Lai Massacre.
I wrote a lot about Don/Matt Weiner/Tony Soprano and how the end of that series may influence the end of this series. Toward the end of The Sopranos, there was a much larger focus on the Iraq War. Notably, the finale's title "Made in America" is an allusion to the Iraq War as being made in America, that is wholly a product of the Bush administration*.
*“The theme of that episode was “Made in America.” I used that title not only because Tony’s a made guy, and all these guys are made guys, but also because it was about the extreme amount of comfort Americans have, especially people with money. And specifically, it was about the war in Iraq—it was made in America, and as you saw in the show, Tony and Carmela just didn’t want their son to go, and they could afford to see that their son didn’t go. Like some of our leaders.”
“…Not to get too didactic about it, but it was really sort of about how we are going about our amply fed, luxury-car life here, and the world is going to hell and we’re under tremendous threat. And people don’t want to see it”. - David Chase in GQ
On that note, with the Iraq War having been out of sight and out of mind for so many Americans, Mad Men is about to enter a time where the War in Vietnam is about to be put front and center due to the draft, including the elimination of many deferments.
- We don't see Don until ten minutes into the episode.
- Alan Silver, who I guess is Megan's agent or something, is a weird cross between Fredo Corleone and Jonah Hill's character in The Wolf of Wall Street.
- Don thinks that Pete looks and talks like a hippie. What, with his polo Lacoste polo and sweater tied around this shoulders. I mean just go to Woodstock and be done with it Pete.
- Peggy's all alone, except for the yelling match with the child tenant. So is Don for that matter. Interesting considering at the end of last season they seemed to be diverging, but their in the same spot more than ever
- Roger, like his fellow white-haired actor Malcolm McDowell, is leading some sort of Caligula-type life
- Are decreasing shoe sales really a sign of the times?
- Everything was modest and drab when the show began, in 1960. Come 1964 and the new offices of SCDP, everything was incredibly bright. The costumes and scenery seemed to have like a dark accent around everything, like it was outlined. Maybe it's the way it was shot and maybe it's something else.
- Still no women wearing pants but look out for when that bomb gets dropped.
- Don and Megan seem to both know that it's over but neither want to acknowledge it, see the Vanilla Fudge below
- Poor Joan immediately has to think the worst when the college professor wants to "trade" for information, bringing up PTSD of Herb the Slimey Jag Dealer.
- I'm pretty sure the only on-the-job drinking we saw was Joan having a sip before her call with Butler's head of marketing.
- Don's open balcony door means...what, exactly
- Depth perception jokes don't stop being funny
- Pete only recently learned to drive, having been a lifelong New Yorker. Now he's in the car town of all car towns, where he could walk to lunch, but doesn't.
When Are We?
Nixon's inauguration was January 20, 1969. Don took leave of SC & Partners at Thanksgiving 1968 so two months have passed in Mad Men world (as Freddy points out), the shortest time jump we've seen between seasons
Music
"I'm a Man"
Recorded by The Spencer Davis Group in 1967
Re-recorded by Chicago in 1969
Well if I had my choice of matter
I would rather be with cats
All engrossed in mental chatter
Moving where our minds are at
And relating to each other
Just how strong our wills can be
I'm resisting all involvement
With each groovy chick we see
"You Keep Me Hanging On"
Vanilla Fudge
Recorded by The Supremes originally in 1966
Re-recorded by Vanilla Fudge in 1967
You really don't want me
You just keep me hangin' on
You really don't need me
You just keep me hangin' on
Is there a better way to track the change of the show from March 1960 to almost the 1970s than with psychedelic cover versions of classic Motown hits?
TV and movies
Lost Horizon
Themes of Utopia
Next Week on Incongruous Mad Men Clips
Don puts on a jacket, in profile, and shrugs his shoulders
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