Comments on: “Mad Men” Recap: 405, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”

By: “Mad Men” Recap: 405, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” - NewsOK.com (blog) | LUCRATIVE HOME BASED BUSINESS

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:58:45 +0000

[...] “Mad Men” Recap: 405, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”NewsOK.com (blog)Don, meanwhile, is taking Bethany (Anna Camp) to Benihana of Tokyo (a business-and-pleasure field trip that will probably be about as enlightening as Ruth … [...]

By: staticblog

staticblog — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:52:05 +0000

Thanks so much, Kev — all your points are spot-on about this episode, and I think you’re especially right about Blankenship. A lot of people are enjoying her (and I am, to a degree), but it has to end soon. She’s supposed to be a relic, but tonally she throws everything into a kind of 1970s sit-com vibe — specifically, she reminds me of a character actress named Florence Stanley, who played Fish’s wife, Bernice, on “Barney Miller” and “Fish.” She had this grating voice and presence that was distinctive but a little went a very long way.

I think the evolution of Pete is one of the key developments this year. Back when he was a mere cog in the old Sterling Cooper, his backstabbing personality was a little one-dimensional, but now that he has power, His Weaselness is a lot more fun to watch.

And Jones has been quite good in her relatively few scenes this year. It bodes well for Betty’s eventual slide into pill-popping and key parties.

By: kev

kev — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:48:22 +0000

I think that great entertainment can be marked not just by how many good reviews they receive, but how many greatly written reviews they inspire. If that’s true, this season of Mad Men is clearly shaping up to be a classic. Your synopses have been a true pleasure to read, George. You’re clearly having fun. Keep it up.

Some other things I loved about this episode:

* PETE WAS RIGHT. I love it when Pete is right, maybe because he usually handles it so poorly.

* Smitty! “Do you ever talk about me like that?”

* Don Draper showing us all how to be Don Draper again. Don didn’t like Peggy’s canned ham stunt in episode 401, but maybe just because it wasn’t clever enough. I’ve missed Bruce Wayne getting to be Batman.

* Peggy’s dress in the hatching of the Honda plan, and the shot of her riding the Honda in circles aimlessly.

* Don’s confession about his strained relationship with his kids. “When I have them, i don’t know what to do. Then I drop them off, and I’m relieved. Then I miss them.” Heartbreaking.

* Even though Betty has become a raving lunatic, I was reminded this week what a terrifically nuanced actress January Jones is.

* “Not very subtle, are they?” “No, they are not.”

The one thing I didn’t love:

* Mrs. Blankenship. All of her bits were hilarious individually, but come on. It’s getting out of hand. She’s right out of a different show.

By: staticblog

staticblog — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:46:51 +0000

I’ll have to go back and look to see if I can get the details you described, but the pop-psychology of it is that she had a vision of what life would be like for her, and the true story of Dick Whitman (which Betty only heard part of) kind of “blew the lid off” her ideal world.

But there could also be a little bit of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” to it, also — a woman who has been treated as a bauble by a husband who is not who she thought he was. Just a guess — Betty clearly isn’t headed for the kind of redemption Nora Helmer has, but she definitely has the childish wife thing going — even more so now with Henry.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:13:30 +0000

Hello

Just wondering your thoughts on the doll house scene. what i was able to pick out was that the master bedroom was top left, without a roof. almost as if it wasn’t in the house. also the family of dolls mirrored that of the draper household, which had the husband and wife, with 2 small children and a baby.