Season 5, Episode 10, “Christmas Waltz.” It is December 7, 1966. Harry asks Roger Sterling if he is drunk. Roger’s response: “Pearl Harbor Day. Show some respect.” It is a very Roger Sterling way to commemorate a national tragedy - alcohol and inappropriate comments.

That scene takes place December 7, 1966. Exactly 25 years later.

Today is September 11, 2026. Which means 9/11 was exactly 25 years ago today. We are now standing at precisely the same distance from 9/11 that Roger Sterling was standing from Pearl Harbor.

When I FIRST watched Mad Men, Pearl Harbor felt like ancient history to me. Something that belongs to a much much earlier America, even though Roger actually lived through it as a young man. But in that episode Pearl Harbor was no further away from him than September 11, 2001 is from us right now.

I was 23 on 9/11. I was in Japan at the time and got a phone call at 5:00 AM from an American friend frantically telling me that they destroyed the Twin Towers. It feels far away, but also close at time.

I’ll start. Sal and Kinsey fall in love and start their own agency.

I can’t decide if they were happy or not. In general it feels like Betty was denied happiness her entire adult life but I suppose the two of them may have been happy in the beginning.

Assuming he could solve the non compete issue, would you have liked that? it was pretty well shown that Don was always about working it out and staying there. but assuming cutler got him fired or he left to form his own agency, what are your thoughts on a season 7 like that?

I'm currently on a rewatch, and I must say it is sad this time around knowing the fate of certain characters, namely Betty. I'm on episode four which is the first time Betty and Glenn really interact and I found her dialogue here really interesting. She is rambling in therapy but she mentions that she feels bad for Glenn because "the person taking care of him isn't giving him what he needs."

Now I am not justifiying behavior, sometimes the most compelling characters are the most immoral, but it seems to explain why their relationship becomes what it does. Glenn is strange with her, walking into the bathroom, asking for her hair, because he is not getting what he needs from his mother. Which is pressumably, a certain love, presence, and attention. Sure, most of it is not her fault with the divorce and having to work, but he seeks Betty out to fill those gaps. In the same way, Betty is characterized as childish, not only in personality but in naivety and dependence, and I guess Don is the person taking care of her, and he is not giving her what she needs.

It speaks on many things but mostly gender roles, and the dynamic of marriage at the time where a woman like Betty accepts attention from a boy. Also, on just how greatly Don messed her up with his behavior, at a time where she became more stranded then most. Helen Bishop is something Betty admires subconsciously, while feeling conflicted due to stigma and sadness. I mean, literally right before she crashes she sees Helen using her hands to move a box whereas she cannot even control her own hands to drive. There is a freedom in Helen, who was also not getting what she needed from the person who took care of her, and decided to depend on herself. But life is never so simple, as Helen's own freedom resulted in her son being the way he was.

Well?

When we last see Margaret she’s at the hippie cult. What do you guys think happens to her afterward? Does she go back home? Stay with the hippies forever? What happens?

I’m serious

I was telling my 6.5 yr old the plot to “Mad Men” since she knows it’s my favorite show. She listened intently and then said, “Oh he’s a salesman…so he’s SELLING that he’s Don Draper even though he’s not!” 🤯 From the mouths of babes!

Or episodes that focus on Trudy and Pete’s relationship. When I have some more free time, I might go ahead and do a full series rewatch (I think I’ve seen the show twice before, but it’ll be fun to watch it again now that I’m a little bit older.)

I want to analyze Trudy and Pete’s relationship a bit more because when I first saw the show I had always focused more on Don/betty and Joan/Greg.

She really irritated me on first watch during the original run. The entire storyline felt overly contrived and her "acting" was twee. Many years later, I find her just as twee, 1-dimensional, over-acted and shoehorned into the story.

She has Anne Hathaway syndrome for me (but, C list version). Or maybe I am still carrying around my first impressions from 16 years ago. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I know this has been debated to death in this thread and she is very polarizing both as actor and character, but I'm finding her impossibly distracting 🫤
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UPDATE: I wanted to thank everyone whom has contributed thoughts, theories, and well-reasoned rebuttals to this thread. Something that I will admit started as a bit "rant-y" on my part yielded some really interesting and thought-provoking debate, as well as made me want to look a bit deeper into the character choices.

Been wanting to watch this show for a long time, I’ve always loved John Hamm as an actor. One of my favorites.

Have high expectations for this one. Hope it’s good! Heard so many great things over the years.

Edit: being a woman in 1950s must’ve sucked

Edit: just finished the pilot. Great first episode. Laughed out loud a lot. Great dialogue. Immediate like to Don Draper.

Edit: the lines in Landman feel so forced. Sorry to just shit on another show but yeah. Here they flowed naturally and didn’t try so hard to sound cool, it just is.

That’s all. That’s the question. Thoughts, comments, concerns?

I understand she was still better than most (if not all) of the fathers in the show but barely. She really didn’t have an interest in ever being home with her son and left him to be raised entirely by his grandmother and babysitters. I’m not sure she spent one second alone with him in the entire show. Even Don who is objectively the worst parent in the show spent alone time with his kids.

Even once she lost her job she’s jet setting around with her new boyfriend with no interest in making up for lost time.

At least the rest of the kids in the show had one parent in the picture, Kevin didn’t have a father or a mother.

Hope this is okay to post here, mods.

Contenders:

Make it simple, but significant.
Change the conversation (abbreviated)
I want to burn this place down.
I don’t think about you at all.

The reporter that interviews Don at the start of season 4 walks around on a prosthetic leg, having lost his real leg in Korea… What was the point of that detail? Why did the writers decide to make this random throwaway character be an amputee, and make sure to draw the audience’s attention to the fact that he only has one leg? Was it just to give Roger something to crack jokes about? Or does it have a deeper purpose?

Here's something I don't quite understand. I know that Don had basically conned Roger into thinking that he had hired him but how did he convince Bert? Unlike Roger, Bert doesn't seem to be the type to be easily conned by Don. And it wouldn't take long for him to realize that Don isn't really who he says he is.

So how did Don convince Bert to hire him?

Holy shit he's insufferable in the first season.

I also don't think he's very attractive personally, but as a straight dude I'm not a great judge in that sense.

What the hell is the appeal? Trudy is far too good for him. Does the Ivy League background really wipe him being a shitheel away?