Raw Data: For Immediate Release

These are initial observations for Mad Men episode 6-06 "For Immediate Release" written by showrunner Matthew Weiner and directed by Jennifer Getzing, a longtime script supervisor and director for this show.

• Title refers to the header on a press release, voiceover-ed by Peggy at the episode's conclusion
• Deadwood fans will dig a laudanum reference
• Pete appears to have taken on some of Lane's responsibilities (probably because Don and Roger have zero interest in it), based on Bert's comments about running the business while keeping it lean and his involvement in taking the company public
• Seeing Roger hustle, which happened a bit last year, is great.  The first few seasons Roger was aloof and distant, playing with these things and losing accounts.  In Season Five he was going after accounts again after he realized Pete was trying to push him out.  He even gave Lane some advice on how to act like an account man, revealing just how much Roger knows about the game and that he's not always as drunk as he seems.
• We got a whiff of his fake drinking again when he ordered a water for himself and a double for his whale.
• Also saw that while Roger didn't have any great ideas, it so happened his whale came up with one himself, and it so happened to involve Roger.  Good job Roger!, I mean Mikey!
• Time in the Mad Men world passes at roughly one month per episode.  This episode is obviously May 1968, specifically Mother's Day.  And Peggy says the date again when she Carrie Bradshaws.  In one more month we'll be at the assasination of Bobby, who got a mention from Peggy.  
• Abe supports Gene, though he obviously didn't go "clean" for him.  Peggy supports Bobby, and we saw she still hangs JFK's picture in her apartment.
• At first I thought Herb wanted someone who could plagiaraize off Don, but then, according to Don, he wants to essentially have creative control.
• Trying to think of a more awkward  moment (in history) than between Pete and Trudy's father.  Not coming up with anything.
• If the stairs do symbolize success, then Pete's in for a rough landing this season
• HAHAHAHAHA
• Joan is the only person who can and will speak to Don like that
• Burt won't, but we know he's more about subtle power since he blackmailed Don into signing a contract
• Roger could, but won't
• Pete can't, but does anyway
• When it became clear that SCDP and CGC were going to merge, the only shocking thing was how fast that happened
• The merge is like a late game move on Survivor.   Castaway may be in a steady alliance, but knows they are on the bottom and don't wield much power.  They can hang around and play the string out.  Or they can make a big move.  They may not get far on their move, but the payoff could be huge and they sure aren't going anywhere if they remain static.
• Looking back, this was set up a bit when J. Walter Weatherman, I mean J. Walter Thompson, won the Heinz account, beating them both.
• Joan's actions appear to be the worst kept secret in the office.  Certainly now if it wasn't before. The consequences continue to reverberate throughout SCDP, with bitterness abound.
• Joan at least wanted to enjoy the spoils of probably the worst day of her life, set up well when they explained her 5 percent would be worth over a million dollars, more than she'd ever imagined and more than a single mom in 1968 could hope for.
•  Don appears to have given up on learning French.  Last season, when he was more invested in his marriage, we saw him reading a book on French.  His interest in the language and his wife (more or less) has gone by the wayside.
• If only I could express my disdain in French for those I find so contemptible, and to do so right in front of them.
• Ted observed something about Don to the effect of "this is why everyone hates you (Don)" which is a new take on Don.  Weiner may be taking Don down the Tony Soprano path from what we've seen so far, but this has to be the first time we've seen someone in-universe refer to Don that way.  Until now, he's been pulling rabbits out of hats to make pitches work as well as viewed with some reverence and legend (from how clients speak about him when meeting him).  This is different.
•  On the next episode of AMC's Mad Men....Stan reacts to things.

Do you act, or react?

"For Immediate Release" pushed plot lines like Mad Men rarely does.  It did so on within the episode and on a macro level for the whole season. Roger has his storyline of chasing down GM which fit into his larger storyline of finding his hustle again.  Anytime a pitch for a particular client is involved, it makes for a storyline within the episode, which occupied Don, Ted and Peggy.  The GM pitch then made for what will most likely be one of if not the biggest move of the year, the merger of CGC and SCDP, two companies that have been on the ropes.

There are times when Mad Men is a lot like when Joey Tribbiani teaches soap opera acting, it's about reacting, and watching the characters reactions.  "For Immediate Release" focused more on their actions, a rarity.

Raw Data: The Flood

These are the unprocessed thoughts and observations for Mad Men episode 3-05 "The Flood". Written by  Matthew Weiner and Tom Smuts, a co-producer this season.  Directed by Chris Manley, the director of photography for 54 episodes of Mad Men and the pilot of Homeland.  Manley also directed "Commissions and Fees" last season (when Lane gets busted).

• Title refers to Ginsberg's father referencing The Great Flood, the one Noah built the ark for.  Or Don's flood of emotion for his son.
• This show is nothing if not there to create characters and show their reactions to both benchmarks in their life and in American history.  You can have an episode on the Kennedy assassination.  You can have an episode about building your kid a playhouse.
• That said, while the previous episode could only be placed in "early spring" (?) and during the presidential primaries, this one is more apparent *.
• Need a weird creepy guy?  Someone call Tom Cruise's cousin, William Mapother.  Better known as Ethan Rom (Other Man) from Lost or Delroy from Justified.  You know you are in for something strange when he shows up on the screen.
• Joan's consolation of Dawn was perfunctory and awkward, while Peggy was sincere with her own secretary
• Following that, the insensitive nature by which SCDP tried to be sensitive.  Closing the office early...after Dawn had already slogged in with a lot of effort**.  And Burt closed the office but didn't close it.  Kind of like those voluntary mandatory things you have at work.
• For that matter, Don treated Don with indifference, telling her to go home more as a duty he felt he had to do than out of genuine compassion.
• Not dissimilar to the awards ceremony which planned to hold the news until the end of the event.  Their solution to "take ten minutes to talk out this terrible event and then resume the program" is even worse than SCDP's waffling on closing the office. 
• Some people on this show do not change, comparing the JFK and MLK assasinations
• Pete becomes indignant at Harry for not being solemn enough.  Pete skipped Roger's daughter's wedding, incredulous that they would still have it following the presidential assasination, and was also offended at remarks overheard ("...the man had enemies.")
• Not that Pete hesitated to make the delivery guy truck through the riots
• Roger sarcastically mocks the MLK assassination "Man knew how to talk, I don't know why but I thought it would solve the whole thing."  About a month after the JFK assasination in "Shut the Door, Have a Seat" Roger wonders if the bar they are in will ever take that Kennedy picture down
• Peggy's JFK photo still appears prominently in her apartment

•  What did Roger mean when he said his weird friend "talked him off a roof" once?  Roger, were you tripping again?
• "Henry's not that important."

Ginsberg's reaction to the MLK shooting was "They had to do it" as in "of course."  His father merely pulls a sweater over his head and goes back to sleep.  Being born in a concentration camp, Ginsberg, and obviously his father too, have less surprised reactions than everyone else.  Perhaps because they come from a such a violent place, specifically violent towards minority groups.

* April 4-8, 1968

** Granted, Joan did try to call her and Dawn said she preferred to work, but there didn't seem to be a sincere thought toward Dawn at al.  Don seemed indifferent handing his Rolodex back to her.