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flowrs4ophelia1. Wow, I hadn't even realized how much I've missed Mad Men. This episode makes me so excited for this season.
I'm already getting the idea that this season is going to be a lot less depressing than the last one. Even during the big "Oh shit" moment of Sal getting discovered with the bell boy, and especially later on the plane when he was nervous as hell around Don, I was able to laugh through it a little. I was pretty surprised to read an article that hinted that Peter and Trudy would be not only still married but on pretty good terms, but they're actually pretty cute now. Betty is warmer and more tolerant with her kids and seems pretty content with having the baby now, and as far as I can tell her and Don's happy moments together don't seem so superficial (even if their marriage still can't be perfect yet, but I'll get to that later).
— Peterson throwing a tantrum and scaring "Moneypenny" by shouting at him was hilarious.
— Don and Sal are just plain awesome hanging together and playing along with each other as they pretend they're people they're not. Oh HEY, could that be something thematically relevant? Hehe.
It's kind of weird to compare the fans' reactions to Don cheating in this episode with the fans' reactions to Salvatore cheating. But of course even I can't help but easily forget about Kitty and want Sal to just let himself have what he wants. I can see how some people thought this scene was random and came out of nowhere, but I think a big part of what made this episode really entertaining was all the really sudden things that happened. If it was something premeditated and the bell boy had slipped him a note about when he'd meet him after they had a long conversation or something, I'm pretty sure Sal wouldn't have given into it.
I loved how it played out after Don caught him. Don seems to like Sal and not really care and with the "Limit your exposure" message he seemed to just be warning him to be careful.
— God how I love Bert Cooper and his weird art collection. TENTACLE PORN, lol.
— Oh, Pete, you big baby. NEVER CHANGE.
— Though it's not exactly better in any way because cheating is cheating, Don sleeping with Shelly is nevertheless an interesting change from his usual ways. It used to be he'd never sleep with women just because they were available, and they were usually smart and interesting women he had some kind of connection with beyond the most shallow level of attraction. He seemed to take comfort in thinking himself above the kind of reputation that Bobbi told him he has. Shelly really doesn't seem like the kind of woman that Don Draper would usually sleep with, but maybe she's the kind of woman Dick Whitman would sleep with.
The fact that it's his birthday—his real birthday (I loved that line about how looking at his driver's license wouldn't help)—seems pretty significant since this is something he still can't share with Betty, and maybe somehow accounts for his lapse of decency (if it can even be described as that, since it's hard to tell if he's made this a habit ever since getting back with Betty or not). The flashbacks in the beginning of the episode showing how he was born were so sad. It seems like it's possibly starting to catch up to him how he hasn't been able to reconcile his two lives and so he still can't fully and honestly live the one he's trying to have.
2. I finally watched all of the TOS Star Trek movies that I had never seen...
I think this conversation I had with my sister (aspartame33) adequately expresses my feelings about TMP...
catsonmars01: I love how short the scene on Vulcan is in the first Star Trek movie
aspartame33: hah
catsonmars01: Spock has long hair, and they just throw down the pendant thing and are like "FAIL," and then they move on....
aspartame33: IKR
catsonmars01: it wasn't that...harsh in the novelisation, lol
aspartame33: they had to visually communicate his humiliation
aspartame33: not that he was really...humiliated
catsonmars01: of course not
aspartame33: just FUCK YOU JIM I MISS YOU TOO MUCH *RIPS HAIR OFF SO THAT IT'S SHORT AGAIN*
catsonmars01: my god the movie is gayer than Brokeback Mountain
aspartame33: lol yes
aspartame33: well, compared to OTHER SCENES it's pretty short
catsonmars01: seriously
catsonmars01: I was making cookies while watching it. I put my cookies in the oven at about the time Kirk and Scotty were starting to take a shuttle to the Enterprise
catsonmars01: ten long shots of the Enterprise later...
catsonmars01: my cookies were done...
catsonmars01: and they still hadn't boarded the damn ship
aspartame33: LMAO
catsonmars01: the movie is just clearly awesome
catsonmars01: that can do that
catsonmars01: Also, Bones has a beard
aspartame33: ALSO.
aspartame33: BONES HAS A BEARD.
catsonmars01: What else can you ask for?
Seriously, the movie is really kind of partially somewhat good and partially awesomely bad in its own trying-really-hard-to-be-2001 kind of way. I've learned that a great deal of Trek material that people call the worst is really not as terrible as you can be lead to believe. (I mean, hey, my first series was Voyager and I have to admit I still find it tolerable.)
And okay, what is this I always hear about how The Final Frontier stinks? Kirk gets attacked by some cat stripper thing with three breasts. They make up some reason for Nichelle Nichols to sing. And Spock apparently carries rocket boots on him at all times. Brilliance. No, but honestly...Spock, Kirk, and Bones go camping and toast "marshmellons" as Spock calls them and are like "We're family, bros" and my head explodes from the somehow vaguely out-of-character cuteness. Bones grumbling about how he liked Spock better before he died possibly made me laugh more than anything he's ever said for some reason.
I got a little weirdly emotional and sad watching The Undiscovered Country because I knew I didn't have any more original series movies to watch after this. Fortunately, it's a really good one. I especially liked that they were able to bring up the death of Kirk's son again in an important way. CAPTAIN Sulu is a righteous badass. And when the actors' signatures came up in the end credits I got all :'(.
This pretty much sums it up...
I'm already getting the idea that this season is going to be a lot less depressing than the last one. Even during the big "Oh shit" moment of Sal getting discovered with the bell boy, and especially later on the plane when he was nervous as hell around Don, I was able to laugh through it a little. I was pretty surprised to read an article that hinted that Peter and Trudy would be not only still married but on pretty good terms, but they're actually pretty cute now. Betty is warmer and more tolerant with her kids and seems pretty content with having the baby now, and as far as I can tell her and Don's happy moments together don't seem so superficial (even if their marriage still can't be perfect yet, but I'll get to that later).
— Peterson throwing a tantrum and scaring "Moneypenny" by shouting at him was hilarious.
— Don and Sal are just plain awesome hanging together and playing along with each other as they pretend they're people they're not. Oh HEY, could that be something thematically relevant? Hehe.
It's kind of weird to compare the fans' reactions to Don cheating in this episode with the fans' reactions to Salvatore cheating. But of course even I can't help but easily forget about Kitty and want Sal to just let himself have what he wants. I can see how some people thought this scene was random and came out of nowhere, but I think a big part of what made this episode really entertaining was all the really sudden things that happened. If it was something premeditated and the bell boy had slipped him a note about when he'd meet him after they had a long conversation or something, I'm pretty sure Sal wouldn't have given into it.
I loved how it played out after Don caught him. Don seems to like Sal and not really care and with the "Limit your exposure" message he seemed to just be warning him to be careful.
— God how I love Bert Cooper and his weird art collection. TENTACLE PORN, lol.
— Oh, Pete, you big baby. NEVER CHANGE.
— Though it's not exactly better in any way because cheating is cheating, Don sleeping with Shelly is nevertheless an interesting change from his usual ways. It used to be he'd never sleep with women just because they were available, and they were usually smart and interesting women he had some kind of connection with beyond the most shallow level of attraction. He seemed to take comfort in thinking himself above the kind of reputation that Bobbi told him he has. Shelly really doesn't seem like the kind of woman that Don Draper would usually sleep with, but maybe she's the kind of woman Dick Whitman would sleep with.
The fact that it's his birthday—his real birthday (I loved that line about how looking at his driver's license wouldn't help)—seems pretty significant since this is something he still can't share with Betty, and maybe somehow accounts for his lapse of decency (if it can even be described as that, since it's hard to tell if he's made this a habit ever since getting back with Betty or not). The flashbacks in the beginning of the episode showing how he was born were so sad. It seems like it's possibly starting to catch up to him how he hasn't been able to reconcile his two lives and so he still can't fully and honestly live the one he's trying to have.
2. I finally watched all of the TOS Star Trek movies that I had never seen...
I think this conversation I had with my sister (aspartame33) adequately expresses my feelings about TMP...
catsonmars01: I love how short the scene on Vulcan is in the first Star Trek movie
aspartame33: hah
catsonmars01: Spock has long hair, and they just throw down the pendant thing and are like "FAIL," and then they move on....
aspartame33: IKR
catsonmars01: it wasn't that...harsh in the novelisation, lol
aspartame33: they had to visually communicate his humiliation
aspartame33: not that he was really...humiliated
catsonmars01: of course not
aspartame33: just FUCK YOU JIM I MISS YOU TOO MUCH *RIPS HAIR OFF SO THAT IT'S SHORT AGAIN*
catsonmars01: my god the movie is gayer than Brokeback Mountain
aspartame33: lol yes
aspartame33: well, compared to OTHER SCENES it's pretty short
catsonmars01: seriously
catsonmars01: I was making cookies while watching it. I put my cookies in the oven at about the time Kirk and Scotty were starting to take a shuttle to the Enterprise
catsonmars01: ten long shots of the Enterprise later...
catsonmars01: my cookies were done...
catsonmars01: and they still hadn't boarded the damn ship
aspartame33: LMAO
catsonmars01: the movie is just clearly awesome
catsonmars01: that can do that
catsonmars01: Also, Bones has a beard
aspartame33: ALSO.
aspartame33: BONES HAS A BEARD.
catsonmars01: What else can you ask for?
Seriously, the movie is really kind of partially somewhat good and partially awesomely bad in its own trying-really-hard-to-be-2001 kind of way. I've learned that a great deal of Trek material that people call the worst is really not as terrible as you can be lead to believe. (I mean, hey, my first series was Voyager and I have to admit I still find it tolerable.)
And okay, what is this I always hear about how The Final Frontier stinks? Kirk gets attacked by some cat stripper thing with three breasts. They make up some reason for Nichelle Nichols to sing. And Spock apparently carries rocket boots on him at all times. Brilliance. No, but honestly...Spock, Kirk, and Bones go camping and toast "marshmellons" as Spock calls them and are like "We're family, bros" and my head explodes from the somehow vaguely out-of-character cuteness. Bones grumbling about how he liked Spock better before he died possibly made me laugh more than anything he's ever said for some reason.
I got a little weirdly emotional and sad watching The Undiscovered Country because I knew I didn't have any more original series movies to watch after this. Fortunately, it's a really good one. I especially liked that they were able to bring up the death of Kirk's son again in an important way. CAPTAIN Sulu is a righteous badass. And when the actors' signatures came up in the end credits I got all :'(.
This pretty much sums it up...
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 06:38 am (UTC)LOL, the series is, too. I love Star Trek.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 10:04 am (UTC)Also, was it just me or did that one stuck up English dude sorta look like Pete.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 05:23 pm (UTC)Yes! Every time he showed up I thought it was Pete at first and got confused.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 05:49 pm (UTC)I HATE IV. HATE IT!! Spock's half-brother, by a Vulcan princess? Come on! Brutal. The marshmellons were great though. LOL
My favourite will always be TWOK. Khan Singh is just sexy...in the series and in the movie. My favourite villain, even more so than Q and I loved Q.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-19 01:04 am (UTC)