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Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
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PandoraSpocks
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
Okay, I love it. From Jon Hamm to the clothes, to the dead on roles the women have, I love this show.
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PandoraSpocks was starred PandoraSpocks was unstarred

intime
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
I have a question for everyone and my apologies in advance if this has already been discussed at some other time.

Are there people out there who think, like me, that Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete Campbell, is a terrible actor? He just makes me cringe - and not in the right way. I'm not thinking I can't stand Pete Campbell, I'm thinking I can't stand Vincent Kartheiser's portrayal of Pete Campbell. He just doesn't seem in the same league as the other actors in the series. I feel like I'm watching the performance of a lousy high school actor.

Does anyone else feel that way?
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Edited by intime at 08/17/09 1:01 PM intime was starred intime was unstarred

WhiteMan'sBourbon
08/17/09

@intime: Funny, I've always admired Vincent Kartheiser precisely for his creepy portrayal of Pete Campbell -- I've always felt his cringe-worthy scenes are his interpretation of Pete as a person who is so self-conscious, and so alienated from others by his ambition and his aggrieved sense of himself as a person whose brilliance is unjustly unrecognized, that he can't ever just "be himself." In other words, I see it as Vincent playing Pete as someone who is himself always playing the part of Pete. But that's just my opinion.
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Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment WhiteMan'sBourbon was starred

Trixie from Toronto
08/17/09

@intime: Really? I love him, and think he plays him perfectly.
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DahlELama
08/17/09

@intime: It's not so much that I find him to be a bad actor as that I find him to be a stage actor on a TV show, which I just think is a bad combination. I think he'd be fantastic for Broadway Presents: Mad Men, but right now, I just find him kind of hard to watch, though he sure plays an asshole well.
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PandoraSpocks
08/17/09

@Trixie from Toronto: Yeah. I think his character is creepy, which suggests he is doing a good job.
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PandoraSpocks was starred PandoraSpocks was unstarred

robotwaste
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
I found it interesting to learn Don's mother was a whore, which might explain that his complete lack of morality is his birth right.
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Antennapedia
08/17/09

@robotwaste: I thought we learned that Don was a "whoreson" in season 1... whatever episode where the drifter, uh... drifts through in his flashbacks? I like the fact that not only does Don Draper not have "people" because he's living a dead man's life, he wouldn't really have had "people" even if he'd stayed Dick Whitman.
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Sandogg promoted this comment Sproing approved this comment Antennapedia was starred Antennapedia was unstarred

Sandogg
08/17/09

@Antennapedia: well, except for his disturbed little red-headed step brother who offed himself after Dicky rejected him.
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Sandogg was starred Sandogg was unstarred

Cynical Media Bitch
08/17/09

@Sandogg: Adam was Dick's half-brother, I believe. That made the whole situation between the two a little more painful.
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Trixie from Toronto
08/17/09

@Antennapedia: We did, and what I didn't quite get about that scene was how was he flashing back to his own birth?
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Sandogg
08/17/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: you are correct! I missed the little detail of them having the same "father of the year"
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The Curse of Millhaven
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
Time to place Mad Men next to cigars, Cake and Star Trek on the shelf for things that I like that are very nearly ruined for me by the other people who like them.
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Sandogg
08/17/09

@The Curse of Millhaven: Case in point, see robotwaste comment above.
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WhiteMan'sBourbon
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
To me, one of the most interesting lines of the episode was the scene where Betty remarks to Don that their daughter has been playing with his tools "like a little lesbian." I was like, way to enforce dominant heteronormative attitudes on your child!

Which in turn got me thinking that maybe the rigid enforcement of male and female stereotypes that are considered such a huge part of '50s morality came about in reaction to the growing awareness of the existence of heterosexuality and other "deviant" behaviors. Don & Betty's grandparents probably wouldn't have worried if their daughter was a "lesbian" because it's likely they would not have known such a thing existed, or could possibly exist. But thanks to psychoanalysis and other cultural trends beginning around the turn of the century, by the 50s such "deviant" behavior had become familiar, if not yet accepted ... In other words, maybe the reactionary repression of the '50s was a kind of preemptive strike against the countercultural storm that was brewing and would hit a decade later ... I dunno, just the first thing that came to mind.
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Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment WhiteMan'sBourbon was starred

Occula
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
I'm sorry that some fans didn't get anything out of this episode. We, on the other hand, were falling out of our chairs. Tentacle porn? Turquoise cushions on a mustard-yellow couch? Trampy stewardess naked in her London Fog as inspiration for Don's ad, to save Sal's face (or put him in danger)? Joan in houndstooth putting smarmy John in the doghouse? Pete whining like a bitch? Looked, sounded and felt like excellence to me.
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Carol Gardens
08/17/09

@Occula: Yep, that tentacle porn was the best!
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WhiteMan'sBourbon
08/17/09

@Occula: The best/scariest thing about that scene was Pryce practically licking his lips while taking in the tentacle-porn print, his eyes opening to whole new levels of misogyny that he couldn't have conceived of before. I think Jared Harris has the potential to turn Pryce into one of the better evil characters on the show.
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Occula promoted this comment WhiteMan'sBourbon was starred

Occula
08/17/09

@antisocialite: I have a soft spot for Jared Harris, maybe coz he always looks the same age...which is weirdly ageless, like his dad but with eternally red hair.
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Cheap Shot
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
I never expect much from season premieres. They are merely for setting up plots and to get the ball rolling.
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RonMwangaguhunga
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
It was a show about nothing. Is anyone else worried that the Don Draper opening foot shot suggests that Matt Weiner is going down a dark, Tarantino-ish path?
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RonMwangaguhunga was starred RonMwangaguhunga was unstarred

gabbo
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
Don might get his comeuppance, or the writers might acknowledge what Neil LaBute did in "In the Company of Men": many real-life Aaron Eckharts and Jon Hamms get away with it all, because they're beautiful and compelling. His reply to the stoner warning him about cops in season 2 was pitch-perfect: "No, *you* can't leave this apartment." And out he strides, nod to the cops, free to do as he fucking pleases. Part of us wants him to get away with it. He's like a prize racehorse being put out to stud, and your petty strictures about honesty and morals are quite beside the point.
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Sproing promoted this comment gabbo was starred gabbo was unstarred

Trixie from Toronto
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
I thought it was great, and there were all sorts of sinister yet subtle signs that things are going to get really dark for Don Draper this season.
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Cynical Media Bitch
08/17/09

@Trixie from Toronto: Between your thought processes and your avatar, you are clearly my alt. I'll make more popcorn.
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unclevanya
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
Will people leave Entourage alone already? Forcing a comparison between it and Mad Men is ludicrous. It never claimed to be anything more than it is, and its popularity isn't a crime. If Max Valliquette has a problem with the fact that he can't miss an episode, that's his problem. Pick up a patch at Duane Reade if it's such a monkey on your back.
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Edited by unclevanya at 08/17/09 3:22 AM unclevanya was starred unclevanya was unstarred

Sandogg
08/17/09

@unclevanya: Mad Men is to cool like Entourage is to douche
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RonMwangaguhunga
08/17/09

@Sandogg: People still watch Entourage?
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RonMwangaguhunga was starred RonMwangaguhunga was unstarred

snugbug
08/17/09

@Sandogg: Ha, Entourage is to "having irreversibly jumped this critter in 2006" like Mad Men is to "having its Zeitgeist moment in 2009."
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Sandogg
08/17/09

@RonMwangaguhunga: I wonder. I canceled my HBO in June and have never looked back.
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robotwaste
08/17/09

@unclevanya: It's okay to enjoy both. That's what I tell myself so I can sleep better. It's fair to say that after 5 minutes of listening to Ari babble, Don Draper would glide across the room and break his nose. Then he and Vinny would go pick up 4 stewardesses and have a sexy party.
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unclevanya promoted this comment robotwaste was starred robotwaste was unstarred

unclevanya
08/17/09

@robotwaste: Now you're talking!

[www.youtube.com]
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Edited by unclevanya at 08/17/09 3:01 PM unclevanya was starred unclevanya was unstarred

OMGeorge
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
Whereas for me, working at an agency, this whole London-Fog-brand-as-metaphor makes me want to put the shotgun back in my mouth so I can skip tomorrow morning's brainstorm.
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Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment OMGeorge was starred OMGeorge was unstarred

TedSez
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
The scenes where virtually nothing seemed to be happening were the best of all.

So we found out where Don's original name, Dick, came from. And saw him use a third fake name with the stewardess, which is why he couldn't show her his driver's license. None of which would make any sense if you haven't been watching the show all along.
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themediatrix
08/17/09

@TedSez: I figured it out and haven't been watching all along.
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JordanGold
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
I honestly think Mad Men is about as interesting as urinating.
Now Damages on the other hand is one helluva show.
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Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment JordanGold was starred JordanGold was unstarred

Cynical Media Bitch
08/17/09

@JordanGold: When you get a few years older, urinating might become an adventure. Remember, regular prostate checkups for all of you guys are a good thing.
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ampersandparade
08/17/09

In reply to Did the Mad Men Season 3 Premiere Live Up to the Hype?
Joan's subtle undermining of the British secretary will forever rank as one of the quietest bitch-slaps in history. Wonderfully underplayed.
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The Cajun Boy promoted this comment ampersandparade was starred ampersandparade was unstarred

yourfriendandneighbor
08/17/09

@ampersandparade: agreed, the best part of an otherwise underwhelming premiere.
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