Post Punk Kitchen Forum

You guys, it's season 6! How great that the show has managed to progress and still be awesome, right?

It is great - we actually rewatched the whole series over the past couple months, and it's really impressive how smart, interesting, and thoughtful it has stayed through five seasons. In fact, I think on the whole season 5 had some of the best episodes yet, so I'm super psyched to see what happens! There is bourbon is on hand, but I wish I had the ambition, magical powers, and/or an in-house catering staff to whip up ironic '60s snacks.

Yeah. Like we believe Don is interested in/can understand Dante's Inferno even in translation. Stick to what you know, boyfriend.

so don is banging lindsay weir...

Damnit, Don. I thought your man-whoring days were over.

Oh, that's who that was! Weird! I couldn't place her. So they put old makeup on her? That's odd, isn't it? Instead of just getting an older actress?

I came in to post this!

Also, Sally: “She acts like she's 25 or something just because she uses tampons.”

Sally Draper: a whole heap o' trouble just waiting to happen!

And what the fizzle Betty???

I'm so happy that Betty dyed her hair! I'm excited to see what she does this season, she wasn't really on much last. Also, all those scenes with her in the squat made me miss 80s NYC. And it weirded me out to think, if this season is 1969, then when I first went to the lower east side, it was only about a decade later, when my dad lived there. And when I first started hanging out there it was only a few years after that. Time is a mfer.

It's not especially subtle, but I couldn't help liking that Don reads from the Inferno - "Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood" - and it turns out be a gift from a woman with whom he's going astray named Sylvia.

In other news, Don seems like nearly as big a mess as he was back in season 4; puking at Roger's mother's funeral was an especially nice touch. And who knew it was possible for Pete to become more punchable??

Roger's therapy sessions are hilarious: "We discussed this. I can't laugh at everything you say." Betty's idea to "spice things up" by joking about helping Henry rape Sally's friend? Serious what the fizzle moment. And unfortunately that dye job makes her look a lot more like Henry's nightmarish mother than Elizabeth Taylor...I'm afraid our Betty may be going even farther off the rails. And if teenaged Sally Draper doesn't take at least one smack to the chops before this season is over I will be very surprised.

seriously. i've never liked betty, but that was just shockingly awful.

i love roger so much. the entire conversation when he found out his mother died was the best.

Maybe Betty thinks she can "spice things up" with Henry by looking more like his mom? It ain't good.

Re: the rape comment, I thought this article was pretty on the money.

Also:

I thought the fact that she wouldn't joke about anything is what made her joke somewhat acceptable. She has no idea how to joke or what to joke about so of course her attempt was awful.

she has made tasteless jokes in past episodes, though. one that jumps to mind is when she jokes about sally being a lesbian. it didn't seem that out of character to me, although her straight up use of the word rape instead of some euphemism seemed a little over the top.

I'm fascinated by Betty, as I always have been, but even more so after this episode. The joke was awful, but it was also totally something Betty would blurt out. I think they are pushing Sally a bit too quickly to be interesting/adult.

I almost puked when Don puked at the memorial because it was so gross.

But Mad Men is still the best, and I'm so excited for this season.

Also, there was a LOT of pot in that episode.

Holy crepe, I totally didn't know that was her!

Because it's fun to denigrate how Betty's mother-in-law looks? Hilarious.

The rape joke made sense to me. I think we were all supposed to be shocked like Henry. I also thought it was supposed to signify how that family has changed. For example, they (Betty & Sally) seem a lot more at ease with Henry's mother vs afraid of her. I felt that in the car when the girl said "my mother is dead" and they all laughed. I think they are trying to change with the times, but Betty went a little overboard. She has always been awkward and strange, so making a weird joke seemed like her.

God, Don is a mess. And he looked so longingly at Rosen heading out into the snow with purpose. I knew Sylvia was going to be more of a thing when I recognized the actress. I just wish it wasn't being Don's side piece.

I demand more Joan!

No, because Pauline is set up and presented as this horrible person (she gave Sally tranquilizers, ferchrissakes!), and I don't think it's an accident that Betty's "makeover" makes her resemble her mother-in-law. As a matter of fact, Betty's cringe-inducing rape "joke" put me vaguely in mind of Pauline's creepy, quasi-pornographic explanation to Sally of the 1966 nurse murders. I'm not sure what they're playing at with Betty's character, but I kind of agree with the post above that Weiner & Co. should stop tying Betty to the proverbial whipping post and let her do something interesting. (And for the record, I think Pauline's look - like everything else on this show - is very deliberately constructed, and meant to be read as unpleasant. Just sayin'.)

Yep. I think the show is denigrating Pauline in so many ways and we can acknowledge that.

Oh, I have Mad Men short term memory loss and don't remember that.

Did they replace Bobby again? Not only did that kid not look familiar, he looked younger than before.

the rape thing was just off because she delivered it so deadpan...but it is her character...

don - i thought you turned around! i thought random hookups were a thing of the past!

sally - how old is she supposed to be now? wow time flies by fast!

Roger got it righter than he knew when he called him "Don Ho."

They said she's 14....trouble ahead!