— Aubrey Plaza’s pitch for a romcom starring herself and Ryan Gosling (Vulture)
(Source: coenbrosbeforehos, via ladiebear)
Cries and Whispers (1972) - Directed by Ingmar Bergman
ladiebear asked: "so much meat in one episode". gay.
Hahahhha awwww, EVERYTHING I say is gay?
Michael Ginsberg, the new office flirt (hahahaha is that a thing? I feel like that term’s a thing) at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was uninterested in Megan’s friend’s “sexy” jaguar impression.
A NEW GAY HOPE.
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Gay Hope.
I’m sort of disappointed I’m a week behind again- starting my new job made me feel like putting off writing about this uninspiring week at SCDP. GAHHH I’LL BE SURE TO POST QUICKLY ABOUT TONIGHT’S THOUGH! My lord, so much meat in one episode.
Paul Kinsey is back! And now he’s Hare Krishna! And writing spec scripts for Star Trek; Lane has money problems; Joan is served with divorce papers and spends the day with Don
After what has been thus far a thrilling season, we’ve finally come to an episode where Mad Men’s essentially taking the week off, but left the cameras on anyway. Matthew Weiner, Scott Hornbacher, Jennifer Getzinger, Erin Levy, all the other wonderful people that work there, they probably left for Christmas break a little early. That’s not to say “Christmas Waltz” was a terrible episode, it’s just everything about this screamed non-essential, minimal scope. And it invited some harmful styles of narrative that Mad Men better do its best to avoid in the future. I mean it!
Although, I am pretty comfortable ranking it as the worst least wonderful of the season thus far.
1. 5.06 “Far Away Places”
2. 5.07 “At the Codfish Ball”
3. 5.04 “Mystery Date”
4. 5.05 “Signal 30”
5. 5.08 “Lady Lazarus”
6. 5.03 “Tea Leaves”
7. 5.09 “Dark Shadows”
8/9. 5.01/.02 “A Little Kiss”
10. 5.10 “Christmas Waltz”
The headline for Mad Men fans is that this marked the re-appearance of Michael Gladis as copywriter Paul Kinsey. I know from following the fandom that Mr. Kinsey is VERY popular amongst the characters Mad Men has moved on from (though not as popular as Sal). Do I like Paul Kinsey? Well in short….no, I do not. His grand vanity and humongous ego are far less compelling to me than say the ego of Pete Campbell. His stint as a Freedom Rider was at least interesting, insightful on Mad Men’s part. During those episodes Kinsey very effectively represented the white people that took credit for the Civil Rights Movement.
But did I miss him? No, though I was excited by the form he returned in. Kinsey is now a full-fledged member of the Hare Krishna movement, complete with a sex radical intercourse companion Lakshmi (guest star Anna Wood). Harry Crane attempted to reconnect with Kinsey, who wanted him to circulate his Star Trek script around Hollywood, then had to dodge some aggressively sexual behavior from Lakshmi, and ultimately convinced Kinsey to abandon the Krishnas and move to Hollywood. Harry Crane was the principal character in this plotline; I knew we were doomed from the start due to that. It’s not his fault, he’s just so boring.
If you’re reading this maybe you really like television, so you’re familiar with Aaron Sorkin, creator of ‘The West Wing,’ a few other shows I haven’t seen, and the failed ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.’ A symptom of Sorkin’s programming is his bizarre insistence on finding “minority perspectives” and using one episode of his show to investigate it, before safely moving back to normality for the next episode. ‘West Wing’ had an episode about Gay Republicans that ranks, for me, as one of the worst depictions of GLBT individuals I’ve seen on television, its smug self-satisfaction being a particularly galling undercurrent. Studio 60 was even worse; it was quickly cancelled after episode after episode seemed to be “Black people are having a tough time on television!” “No wait, white christian women are!”
It is true that we to some extent never understand the plights of others, but, BUT, television is a created universe. What Sorkin and his ilk do is to focus on divisions and in doing so don’t create a larger respect for diversity, but rather, cement an idea of “normality” that is white, male, straight, and rich. One episode of tourism in counter-culture (or, with white christian women, faux-counter-culture), then safely back to the white world, where we still all have pain and now that we’ve done our duty to the non-white folk we can focus on that. His programming is the equivalent of the students at my own American University who volunteer in Anacostia their first week of school, then return back to white-heaven NW and say “we really need to do something you guys, others have it so hard!” sipping a coffee in a Starbucks in Tenleytown.
This was a round-about way of saying that “Christmas Waltz” is queasily close to becoming Sorkin television, an hour of “Let’s explore Hare Krishna!” with no legitimate engagement. A half-hearted attempt to create a fuller picture of society, but one that is fully aware of its white coloring, and would not want it any other way. In addition, Lakshmi has to be the worst, or near-worst, female character to ever come on the show. A mindless sex-demon who wants nothing more than to control men and…end capitalism? I guess? There was a line about materialists. Some writer clearly has it in for Hare Krishnas if she is their primary depiction.
But enough of the awful Kinsey storyline that seemed to take the full 45; other stuff was going on! Lane’s in financial woes, bless his heart, and in his desperation he forged a check from Don to himself. Darling darling Lane, if one of the mad men deserves to be happy, I feel it’s him. It’s a shame it’s so hard out there for a brit. BUT despite my sincere concern, can you tell I’m impatient to get on to what’s next? Because……
BLAM! A whole lengthy scene of flirting between the first couple of sex, Don Draper and Joan Holloway. After Joan freaked out at a secretary whose cluelessness caused Joan to be served with divorce paper (Joan’s rushed and poorly planned “SURPRISE! THERE’S AN AIRPLANE HERE TO SEE YOU!” was one of the few legitimately funny moments of the season), Don took her out to calm her down. The two pretended to be a couple while touring a Jaguar facility in a deliciously flirty scene, then had drinks at a bar where Joan opened up to Don in a pretty real way with what her life’s been like lately. When Don left, he told Joan how it’ll look to the patrons of the bar that he just got stood up. “Who’s gonna believe that?” Joan replied. Two great actors, talking about how sexy they are, great television. Christina Hendricks in particular has been nailing it this season (AAAHHH DESPERATE CRYING, IF YOU SAW TONIGHT’S EPISODE YOU FEEL ME RIGHT?), can she finally get her Emmy? Before it inevitably goes to Downton Abbey’s Maggie Smith for exerting very little energy, just being her kickass dame self? I mean come on Maggie, give one to Joanie.
MADGAYZ, an occasional update on unanimously agreed or individually perceived instances of gay coding on Mad Men: It’s not coding today, more factual info for the story bible. The fellas all used to think Joan was a lesbian back in the early days of SC! Cause no one can handle Joan, we can only assume. And let’s not forget her lovely sapphic roommate!
— Kristen Wiig’s favorite childhood memory (via helenaoftroy)
(via wiigling)
“Perhaps, if one wishes to remain an individual in the midst of the teeming multitudes, one must make oneself grotesque.”
― Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
HAHAHAHA DOONEESE + THE QUOTE + MY WIIG LUST + SOME HAMM ON THE SIDE; THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER.
I love so many of them so much!
Megan v. Betty v. Sally, the battle of champions, begins; Don tries to reclaim some youth by being a copywriter again, at the expense of Michael Ginsberg; Jane Sterling is a very sad woman
Manhattan is covered in smog! This coy little detail dropped in quickly by Megan, and then basically forgotten, roused my curiosity and to my interest yes, in 1966 Manhattan was enveloped in smog, in an incident that caused the deaths of 168 people! Mercy! I love how Mad Men has taken a firm direction for the cosmic these days- with last episode’s photos of earth, and this episode’s smog infestation. Because certainly this onset of deathly gloom was well in-tune to the collective angst of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and company.
This episode was timed almost to the exact release of Tim Burton’s film Dark Shadows, based on the 1966 gothic soap opera, bizarrely enough. Is it insane to picture this as some sort of intention? I imagined some queasy television announcer’s voice saying periodically throughout the program “MAD MEN brought to you by DARK SHADOWS in theaters May 10th!”, followed by an endless recitation of the same 20-second TV spot advertising the film, probably using the clip when Johnny Depp says “kiss my ass” in old age vampire-speak or whatever that film is. Shudder-inducing. If there is some sort of advertising agreement, it was back-handed at best: the soap opera made just one appearance in “Dark Shadows,” in a scene where Megan was running lines with an actress friend of her’s (for, yes, the acting thing is still happening). Megan’s friend referred to the script as “crap,” and the two had somewhat of a tense moment related to Megan’s relative life of leisure, but her friend’s relative legitimacy in the acting world (she has an audition after all!).
This episode, like many of the best ones, was defined by boundaries and issues of territory. Don arms his way into copywriting for their new client Sno Ball, getting into a tense area of power dynamics with SCDP rising star Michael Ginsberg. Ginsberg’s pitch seemed all-around better- pictures of dignified archetypes getting hit in the face with snow balls, a violent blast of freshness, while Don’s was the devil, a play on “ice-cube’s chance in hell.” The unspoken stand-off ended with Don, after promising to pitch BOTH to Sno Ball, leaving Ginsberg’s ideas in a cab and heading off to Sno Ball solely with his material. Scandal! Unfortunately, at SCDP, Don is king and little will be done to address his wrongdoing. Nearly everyone in the firm responded to Ginsberg’s outrage with “He landed the account!” Silly Ginsberg, what are you, the beat poet whose name you defile by working for the man? Here in Mad Men only the moving of figures across a page really matters, personal dignity and honor be damned!
The second territorial stand-off came from the quartet of Draper Women: Megan, Betty, Sally…and Anna. ANNA I MISS YOU. Yes, though the effortless warmth of Melinda Page Hamilton was missing, Anna Draper made a big return courtesy of the now Weight Watchers-approved Betty Draper. Betty dropped the bomb to Sally, hoping for Sally to cause friction between Megan and Don. Betty doesn’t yet know of Megan’s infinite capacity for apathy regarding Don’s past. Whoops! So all that happened was a rather stormy change in Megan and Sally’s relationship, which, and here was the really interesting part……Sally lied about to Betty. When later questioned by her mother, Sally put on a happy face and pretended all was fine in the Draper House version 2.0. Dark shadows lie all around this broody clan; I thought January Jones and Jessica Pare nailed their exchange early on in this episode. Jones’ resonated a sort of combustible, insecure strength, that in the moment Betty was remembering shooting down those doves, and that if she wants to, she can really sink into aggressive insanity. Pare reacted with a kind of chilled fear; The atmosphere was so cold I half-expected to see her breath.
But the most effective topic of territory this time around came from, of all places, the Roger Sterling storyline. Roger’s somewhat of my least favorite Mad Man; I think John Slattery is limited in his range as an actor and I feel that the writers are often far too tempted to place Roger squarely on the business end of storylines, which is always my least favorite part. But perhaps I loved this because it was Roger AND JANE, not just the lone silver fox. It’s no secret- “Far Away Places” finally made it official- that Roger and Jane’s marriage is beyond collapsing, it’s wreckage at this point. Roger hoped to use Jane’s Jewishness to help him land Manischewitz; in exchange she asked for a new apartment. After a romantic dinner with the clients (money is, preferably combined with Joan’s ass, Roger’s largest turn-on), Roger and Jane returned to Jane’s new, empty apartment. Against a gorgeous NYC vista, Roger and Jane had sex. The next morning we saw Jane, pale and expressionless, solemnly tell Roger how the sex has ruined the apartment for her. “You get everything you want and you still had to do this”
Jane has always intrigued me. Her Season 2 it-girl status, her subsequent Season 3 drunken volatility, her Season 4 relative disappearance, and this new emergence of a deeply troubling wisp of a woman. Jane’s search for a new place away from what now looks like a dark era of captivity has been thwarted, unconsciously by Roger. Roger apologized, sincerely, but superficially, with no understanding of the reality of Jane’s life. A typical Mad Men apology.
Betty sat down at Thanksgiving at the end of the episode and remarked “I’m thankful that I have everything I want, and that no one has anything better” forcing a smile. It’s a pretty key statement to the attempts at ownership and territory these men and women make: their only happiness comes from a total destruction of someone else, just beyond their sight.
JUST STOP IT.
Just stop expecting every single person in the whole wide world to think...
so my brain is like a window, okay. and when I am good and happy and in a good place, the best and happiest place, the window is...
Well, her name’s Ann. And he’s not going on her, okay? They’re just friends.
