This thread deserves a bumping.

For anyone not watching this show--watch it! It's really one of the best shows on TV. Season 3 just ended and I have to say the season finale was fantastic, with both poignant and surprising endings and exciting new beginnings. It's how a season finale ought to be--satisfying and complete, but leaving you full of anticipation for the next season.

Rent the DVDs for seasons 1 and 2. Some of season three is still on ON DEMAND if you have Comcast.

It's a Tribe!

I abandoned this show during Season 2, because it was obvious that the show runner, Matthew Weiner, was stretching the show out once it became a hit. But I've come back in Season 4 to see the start-up of the new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper & Pryce, which has been interesting so far. I just don't know whether we're going to go back to s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g it out.

It appears I'm the only person watching this. But I want to discuss it anyway.

I loved Don's scene with Dr. Faye Miller (the show's answer to Joyce Brothers) when discussing the Pond's research. In fact, the Pond's campaign has the potential to become the driving idea of the season -- which reminded me that the famous counterculture poet Allen Ginsberg did an annotated pot of Pond's Cold Cream in 1965, which I believe appeared in Ed Sanders' infamous counterculture magazine "F--- You! A Magazine for the Arts." (Personally, I only remember Sanders for the Sanders' Truckstop album, which was seven years later, but I digress.)

You can be certain that creator/show runner Matthew Weiner remembers the Ginsberg cold cream jar, so it has to play into Peggy's story line. But Don's comment about advertisers finding new needs for products to satisfy to appeal to potential customers -- and new ways to sell the products -- makes me think that the Ginsberg jar has a major role to play this season. Perhaps not, but that's my read right now.

Anyway, Don has to control his drinking. It's interesting that he's drinking so much that Allison attributes his coldness to alcoholism and forgetfulness, when we in the viewing audience have all seen that he hasn't forgotten about their tryst. He doesn't need office gossip that he's a drunk, because he's the man in charge.

The Vicks account story reminds me of Pete's storyline in the first season, when Sterling Cooper kept Pete based on his contacts. Finally, they paid off, although only because of his ruthlessness with his father-in-law. Does Sterling Cooper have enough creative firepower to deal with the additional business, especially with the new billing oversight from Lucky Strike?

I'm always happy with any episode in which Betty doesn't appear. So now I've been happy with the show for two weeks. But that will end next week.

I'm still watching.

I love the camera work on this show. Peggy peeking over the wall into Don's office. Then Peggy riding the Honda in a circle on the empty soundstage. Roger's white office with him and Joan standing with the skyscraper in the background. Or even just Don leaning on the fridge.

Betty is back and still a terrible mother. Everything is still more about herself than her children. Sally watching The Man From Uncle. Are they hinting that maybe Grandpa Gene molested Sally and before her his daughter Betty?

Peggy is part of the new young generation where Pete is part of the older establishment. They showed that at the end of the one ep when Peggy left with her friends while Pete was with the suits.

Loree, I guess it's just the two of us. This week was interesting, if just to compare the effects of Roger's prior alcoholic blackout ("hiring" Don Draper) with the effects of Don's current alcoholic blackout (hiring Roger's wife's cousin after stealing his ad slogan for a Life cereal ad; sleeping with a waitress (shades of Tiger!) whom he told his real first name).

I also liked seeing Betty as the model in Don's long-ago fur ad and seeing Duck as a current obnoxious drunk.

I don't believe the discussion about Gene in Betty's scene with the psychiatrist two weeks ago was supposed to indicate that Gene abused her as a girl. I thought it indicated her own lost state after her dad died, which she then incorrectly attributed to Sally. But, again, any episode without Betty is a good one to me.

The other thing I noted in this week's episode was Peggy's dissatisfaction at failing to be recognized. I was surprised at the extent to which the drunken Don was a credit hog. Not a good thing in a collaborative field. It may be interesting to see the consequences, especially if Don's alcoholism increases.

Finally watched the last 2 shows. Lots of Don and Peggy. Very little Betty.

Pete wanting the upper hand with Kenny joining the firm.

Don's drinking is getting worse. Peggy ignoring her birthday to stay at the office.

I kept wondering why they made a point of showing Roger recording his thoughts. Then Don found the tape and played it for Peggy.

Don trying to punch Duck to defend Peggy.

But, again, any episode without Betty is a good one to me.

Yes! The less Betty the better.

LAST EDITED ON 09-20-10 AT 06:54 PM (EST)

Season 4 continues with its one episode per month of 1965 format. This one showed us the growing closeness between Dr. Faye Miller and Don, with Sally's unexpected visit as a potential stick of dynamite. It was hard for me to empathize with someone who clearly knew and understood children as little as Faye did. YMMV.

Did Fillmore Auto Parts remind anyone else of Manny, Moe and Jack?

The absolute best line in the episode (IMHO) was when Peggy said to Abe that she couldn't do most of the things that African-Americans couldn't do, but nobody was demonstating on her behalf. The assumed sexism of the 1960s was every bit as pervasive as the assumed racism of the decades before, but it wouldn't begin to change until the end of the decade, and then only because women refused to take it any longer. This episode showed that none of that was on the radar screen yet.

P.S. Someone mentioned to me that I didn't discuss either the Roger-Joan scenes or the Abe scenes other than Peggy's quote. Or Miss Blankenship's death. All intentional. Miss Blankenship was a humorous side-character, but no big deal. The Roger-Joan scenes were stupid, as was Abe.

All in all, a weaker episode, but not without its moments, especially with Don's relationships with Sally and Faye, and the fact that Faye gets the Fillmore crew to an agreement on an ad strategy while Don is preoccupied with the twin office crises.

I'm still waiting for SCDP to lose the Lucky Strike account this season. Matthew Weiner couldn't have laid out the firm's dependence on that account more clearly that he did in the season's early episodes. Do Pete and Ken have enough business to save the firm without Luckies? Can Roger even still generate business?

We got some of the questions above answered in the August episode, "Hands and Knees" (dated by the Beatles' concert at Shea).

Lee dropped the bomb that SCDP would lose the Lucky Strike account, which would move to BBDO, and his "gift" of 30 days notice to Roger will probably be honored in its breach. Roger's outdated Rolodex cards show the difficulty he'll have in bringing in new business.

Don's collapse under DOD scrutiny -- and his decision to tell Faye that he isn't Don Draper -- was interesting, as was Faye's response that he should lawyer up without asking him about his real name and ID. Pete showed incredible loyalty to Don in the partners' meeting by taking sole responsibility for not bringing in N.A.A.

Lane leaving without knowing about Lucky Strike seemed more like a device for keeping him out of the next episode than anything substantive, though. And the only superfluous part of the episode was Roger and Joan's illicit pregnancy, which was just included to advance Joan's story line, which is kind of at a dead end while her husband serves in the military.

For those who don't remember, N.A.A. was the prime contractor on the space program, but after the fatal Apollo 1 fire in Jan. '67, it merged in Rockwell two months later. That $4 million in N.A.A. billings would look awfully good when Luckies leave.

And in the preview, it looks like Ken may follow Luckies out the door.

LAST EDITED ON 10-12-10 AT 02:55 AM (EST)

These seemed to be back-to-back episodes in September 1965, with the second better than the first. The first, "Chinese Wall", was a hodgepodge episode involving the firm's discovery of the loss of Lucky Strike (which Ken learns by accident from a friend at BBDO); the second, "Blowing Smoke". was about the firm's efforts to survive.

In both cases, the title covered the most significant area of the story. In "Chinese Wall", Don begged Faye to breach the wall of confidentiality between her clients (the Chinese wall) and get him an appointment to try to bring in new business (ultimately, she did and got him an appointment at Heinz), while Don himself breached his own wall between himself and secretary Megan, when she threw herself at him in the office at night. The other story lines -- Ted Chaough's efforts to lure Pete, Peggy's dalliance with the writer, Roger's pretense of trying to win back Luckies, Joan's breakup with Roger -- zzzzzzz.

"Blowing Smoke" was a far better episode, with a lot more going on than just Don's attempt to re-characterize the loss of Luckies as a principled decision on the part of SCDP instead of a firm-destroying loss. Everybody was blowing smoke in some sense: Sally at her psychotic mom Betty, who insists that she doesn't need professional help; Midge (Don's girlfriend in season 1) at Don, trying to mask her plea for heroin cash in an "accidental" meeting; and the partners, who had to put up huge guarantees to keep the firm going just a while longer. Even Faye's boss bailed on SCDP. The only person who wasn't blowing smoke was Pete, who got slapped down by his wife Trudy for his honesty, although ultimately bailed out by Don, who is well aware how much SCDP depends on Pete. Bert Cooper even quit the firm with his name on it. We'll have to see how Don's gambit works, but at least all the women around him (Peggy, Megan, Faye) seemed to get it, even if the men didn't.

Chronologically, little time seemed to elapse between the episodes, although Trudy had her baby in the first and she was home with the baby in the second. At the end of the first, Faye tells Don that she got him the meeting with Heinz (beans, vinegar and pickles), and the second starts with that meeting. It could be no more than a week, because Sally's friend Glen is still wearing a summer football helmet and Sally's going back to school, so it has to be early September.

Only one episode left in season 4. Once again, the trailer for the finale didn't include a single new scene, so we have no idea what's coming. But, unlike seasons 2 and 3, Don is in a much more stable place, even with the Luckies disaster. Why does that seem like an invitation for something new to go wrong?

LAST EDITED ON 10-19-10 AT 07:50 PM (EST)

And so it was. Something went horribly wrong for both Don Draper and Mad Men last night. In an episode set well after the disasters of the last two episodes, perhaps over Columbus Day or Thanksgiving 1965 (we know there was a holiday involved), Don proposed to his secretary, Megan, and Joan was revealed to still be pregnant with Roger's baby (although she's told her husband that it's his).

The only good story line in the episode was the piece of business brought in by Peggy and Ken. It may not have been much -- only a half-million-dollar campaign -- but it was the first piece of business the firm had won in 10 weeks, since Lucky Strike split. Interesting that Peggy got the lead for the business through her friend Joyce, but Peggy and Ken still had to capitalize on it over the holiday with little help. But the big soap opera storylines made the whole episode leak like a damp dishrag.

Mad Men, meet the shark. Time to jump!

That did not seem like a season finale. I was left thinking "That's it?" when the episode ended.

I always suspected Joan did not have the abortion. So no surprise there. And Faye had told Don he would be married again within a year. Then we saw Meghan bond with Sally when she was at the office. I figured then she would be the next Mrs Draper. So again no surprise for me.

Something just seemed off as this season ended.

I think part of the problem was that Don had a chance to grow up, at least partway. After all, his fake ID had cost the firm an important piece of business and almost got him arrested. Instead, he chose to veer off to Fantasyland.