If you had to pick a Disney theme park attraction that was likely created by evil reverse vampire Nazi alien zombies to enslave the human race, the first thing on the list would no doubt be "It's a Small World."
This is it folks. Just one wanton warrior from Team Sex and one sweet soldier from Team Chocolate remain. Today, they enter the arena for the Showcase Showdown. There can only be one winner, folks, so you have to choose: Will it be Sex or Chocolate?
"When God closes a door, he opens a dress." This, and other Roger Sterling witticisms from Mad Men, will be published in an actual Sterling's Gold book now pre-orderable. How many seasons til Peggy writes a memoir we'd actually read?
So, Mad Men's over now for another season. And we have a brand-new wife to hate! Hurrah! But before all that, we should talk about the big news this season: The Character Assassination of Betty Draper Francis, Bitchmonster At Large.
There's been some talk that (spoiler alert) one reason Joan on Mad Men didn't have an abortion was because she was worried that a third procedure would harm her future ability to conceive. Is that true, then or now?
During one eventful trip to California, Don dealt with his past, went to Tomorrowland, and decided that the future is now. But has he confused "looking ahead" with "living in the moment"?
In the wake of losing the Lucky Strike account, SCDP was experiencing a bit of a PR problem, with new clients unwilling to do business with a company that appeared to be going under. So Don pulled a stunt.
On last night's episode, SCDP was forced to scramble after learning that Lucky Strike, their biggest client, was moving to a different ad agency. In this uncertain time, mistakes cannot be afforded—or avoided.
Last night on Mad Men, everyone struggled with life-altering secrets. Don tried (again) to keep his identity hidden, Joan was forced to make a difficult decision, and Lane came clean, only to wind up getting knocked to the ground.
Last night, we got to experience the different approaches the women (and girl) took in order to communicate their feelings, and no matter the tactic—confrontation, cold shoulder, desperate act, death—they were heard by the men in their lives.
On last night's episode, Don was dealing with this same old issues (alcoholism, identity, etc.) while Joan and Peggy were faced with something new—sexual harassment in the workplace from male subordinates.
On Sunday's episode, Peggy was faced with choosing between career and personal life. Perhaps she didn't even realize that unlike many women of her era—including those like Trudy Campbell who pity her—she actually had a choice to make.
Liquor has always been prominent on this show—especially this season with Don's dizzying spiral into full-blown alcoholism—but on last night's episode, we learned that while booze might be his downfall, it also was part of his success.
Last night's Mad Men was all about shame: Roger's racism embarrasses his coworkers, Betty's exposed a horrid mother, and Sally's budding sexuality humiliates the Draper family.
Any first-year women's studies student knows that the effects of advertising on the female psyche is, well, fucked—a constant source for depleting self-esteem and feeling inadequate. But on last night's episode, we saw a chicken-or-the-egg scenario.
While last night's Joan-centric episode was a welcome break from a season full of the Draper drips, Mad Men has lost the appealing luster of the early '60s, as it enters into the more depressing half of the decade.
Between budget cuts, broken homes, retro-future interior design, AA, and Swedish dating habits on last night's episode, it's clear that "old fashioned" is for the birds and "mod" is the cooler way to be.
Listen, kids: Smoking is not cool. Unless you're Don Draper, in which case this supercut is very cool. And downright impressive, really.
By November 1964, Mary Quant introduced the miniskirt, and notorious conservative Phyllis Schlafly came to national attention, signaling an impending chasm of cultural mores: "sex sells" and "family values." Every scene in last night's Mad Men premiere indicated that change.
