Mad Men 5x06 Reaction
Added 2025-12-29 00:17:39 +0000 UTC
Comments
visual storytelling in that is stunning
Tyler Horn
2026-01-29 19:36:39 +0000 UTCLola and Mileena to me sometimes assess Don through too much of a cynical lense. Yes, Don is inherently selfish. Yes, he is very self centered but I dont think that Don was doing what he did with Megan because he wants to be controlling. He simply doesn’t know how to be a good, considerate husband. The way I interpreted this is that, Don is trying hard to not have his marriage with Megan end up like his marriage with Betty, so in trying to do so, he’s going to the opposite extreme. He didn’t involve Betty in his work, but now Megan is too involved and intertwined with his work to the point that its a conflict. He never spent time with Betty but now he’s damn near over bearing with Megan to where he’s pulling her from work to spend time with her essentially undermining her and putting her in a bad spot. He wants to involve her and show her what he likes thinking he’s bringing her in but he is really domineering and isn’t realizing it. And when she rejects that (cuz despite her age Megan advocates for herself-another thing I disagree with the girls about), he takes it as a personal insult to him and his attempts to show her love. So def self centered still but because he thinks hes being a good husband.
Mack
2026-01-23 20:18:38 +0000 UTCI would love a West Wing rewatch series. Even if it's just a couple of the favorites like Celestial Navigation or Two Cathedrals.
Luis
2026-01-11 09:01:47 +0000 UTCI cannot even describe how excited I was when you (my favorite reactors) referenced Slaughterhouse Five (my favorite book) in this reaction, y'all are amazing.
Ryan Buchanan
2026-01-06 05:55:16 +0000 UTCYou can collect all your comments into one comment, you don't need to leave 3 or 4 comments.
Kara
2026-01-01 03:17:53 +0000 UTCDon holding on to Megan at the end like Andy when he found his Woody and Buzz Lightyear thought he lost his favorite toy
on crip ...
2025-12-31 18:51:20 +0000 UTCAny word on whether yall are gonna check out Pluribus? I would think yall would be like “fuck a poll, we are watching Kim!” Lol First season was some high quality stuff!
Truemeathead
2025-12-30 01:36:08 +0000 UTCI believe it's "bottle" episode, not "bottled"
Dk
2025-12-29 22:03:14 +0000 UTCRoger's disappearing cigarette is so accurate. I remember being on shrooms and watching in awe as my cigarettes rapidly burned from tip to filter right before my eyes lol. As funny as the scenes are, I think Roger is exactly the kind of person who would benefit from taking LSD. I loved seeing Roger & Jane being completely open and honest with each other, with no judgement or defensiveness. If only every breakup could go that smoothly!
Taya
2025-12-29 19:04:48 +0000 UTCWe're at the precipice of an enormous crossroad.
tilden katz
2025-12-29 19:04:29 +0000 UTCThey don't have much faith that Abe & Peggy's relationship will last. Faye (assuming that's who you're talking about) is a beloved character and was really good for Don. He was also dating her during his supposed self-improvement arc so it was particularly disappointing to see him go back to his old ways and cheat on her.
Taya
2025-12-29 18:45:43 +0000 UTCYou raged so much when Don cheated on his girlfriend, but when Peggy does it you barely comment on it?
Juanma88
2025-12-29 14:02:52 +0000 UTCHaha what
Sebastian
2025-12-29 11:32:33 +0000 UTCThe way L&M described the 3 stories as an allegory to Don's past, future, and future is something I never thought of, and super insightful. Chef's kiss.
tilden katz
2025-12-29 11:15:27 +0000 UTCThis is around the time during the rewatch I start levitating. Nothing better.
cheech
2025-12-29 09:56:12 +0000 UTCI love the scene with Ginsberg and Peggy, heavy stuff!
Biberius Caldius Mero
2025-12-29 09:23:00 +0000 UTCBest comment on here. LMFAO
tilden katz
2025-12-29 08:56:53 +0000 UTCDon Asshole Meter for this Episode: 8. Even when he's trying to be nice, he's still clueless about what anybody (Megan here) wants. And this is supposedly 'happy' Don. I want the real Don. Morose, agonizing, drunk. This Don is super boring, and maybe Bert smacked him back to misery. I need it.
tilden katz
2025-12-29 08:55:04 +0000 UTCEpisode is an homage to Truffaut, and the New Wave of the 60's. Who'd have thought Jane from Jane street was capable of deep thoughts? Roger and her on the floor is the best scene of the season, and one of the 10 best scenes in the entire series. Peggy turning into Don is too on the nose. Weakest part of this superb episode.
tilden katz
2025-12-29 08:49:48 +0000 UTCDon aside, Bert has had some devastating truth bombs for others throughout the show: Pete, Joan, Roger off the top of my head.
Julien
2025-12-29 08:01:46 +0000 UTCDon to Megan: "Why aren't you having a good time? I specifically requested it."
Nina
2025-12-29 07:30:22 +0000 UTCDon literally did not do anything wrong with Megan. She totally threw a fit for no reason and it proves she doesnt care about Don. Could be maybe her disdain for the women who kept coming up to him? But theres some weird thing with her. Like shes looking for excuse to start with him. She's also immature and moody. Don genuinely seemed to want to have a fun time with her and wanted to share his good mood with her.
Robert
2025-12-29 07:02:10 +0000 UTCInteresting choices. "Gur Penfu" vf qrsvavgryl hc gurer sbe zr.
Kev
2025-12-29 05:31:49 +0000 UTCI don't know that I agree. Don has had plenty of pitches where he has to try a couple things to make it work, he has definitely been desperate before. Also Peggy was nervous initially but then found the candy which made her relieved. In my memory of this scene there was more build-up to Peggy's harshness, but I also remembered her as being more abrasive than she actually was. Come on, there are so many scenes where Don is just as forceful but it works because the client respects it. Because a man refusing to take no for an answer is valued.
Kev
2025-12-29 05:29:07 +0000 UTCYes, I think there is a display issue on their end. The scene with Peggy in the movie theater was not impossible to see.
Kev
2025-12-29 05:25:13 +0000 UTCI have been waiting for you two to get to this episode since you started loving Roger.
Kev
2025-12-29 05:23:55 +0000 UTCThe episode already makes the Peggy-Don parallels clear, but there is also a direct call-back to the pilot, where Don takes a nap in his office and Peggy wakes him; only this time it's Peggy taking the nap and Dawn waking her.
Kev
2025-12-29 05:23:30 +0000 UTCAdore the storytelling on this one. Probably my fav episode of the series
Jenny D
2025-12-29 04:43:02 +0000 UTCThis is a weird thing to point out, but I'm gonna be honest the scene in the movie theater was not that dark. I have noticed you sometimes can't see scenes that are even somewhat dimly lit, well that happens when you watch during the day and have a low brightness and gamma. It makes me wonder what else you have missed.
Kev
2025-12-29 04:29:46 +0000 UTCI loled at Lola lamenting that they don't film anything bright enough to see the dark scenes anymore. I hate that so much. I'm currently watching Andor on Disney+ and it's a fucking nightmare for any dark scenes - of which there are many, even with the brightness dialed all the way up. It's awful. But I've never experienced this with Mad Men, which came out well before this heinous trend. I understand that streaming compression contributes to it but I've never had that issue with shows of that time and before. In contrast, as hobbyist photographer, I can assure you that the issue with recent shows isn't just the digital compression - it's the actual cinematography. The lighting is just horrendous. I legit don't get why they make these choices these days. It needn't be like this. Even a recent show like The Expanse, which is largely filmed inside or outside spaceships, isn't this way. If they can managed to make everything visible, everyone should.
Julien
2025-12-29 04:03:43 +0000 UTCI agree that this episode very much looks like three chapters of the same story. The beginning (Peggy), middle (Don), and end (Roger). Ginsberg is definitely "crazy" in how he interacts with others and his general personality, but I think we're supposed to take his background at face value. That he was born in a concentration camp, and was adopted by his father after the war since both of his biological parents died in the camp. His claim to be Martian is a defense mechanism to distance himself from this truth, since it's so existentially horrifying, and who WOULDN'T want to tell themself that it's a lie and they're really from somewhere else? Howard Johnson's was a restaurant chain that grew into a wide range of hotels as well (Often with restaurants and hotels side-by-side). It would be hard to overstate just how MASSIVE the chain was in the USA. According to Wikipedia, it was the largest restaurant chain in the country in the '60s and '70s. That's why Don is so insistent on getting Megan to "enjoy" it, since she's not from the USA and doesn't have that childhood connection. The restaurants started to dwindle in the '80s, and the restaurant chain collapsed in the '00s. There were a few individual franchises that limped on for a while, but the very last one closed in 2022. Now only the hotel chain is still in business, and owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Minor detail here, but Jane revealing that her family speaks Yiddish is the final confirmation that she's Jewish, which had been very lightly hinted earlier in the series. By extension, that means her cousin Danny Siegel is also Jewish, which casts that scene of Harry calling him a Jew because he was "cheap" into a whole new light. As a further extension, Jane's background is ironic, since Roger had previously made a disparaging remark about Greg Harris's background since he believed he 'used to be' Jewish (i.e. his family assimilated to 'pass'). Greg may have been a righteous piece of garbage who deserved to be kicked on his own merits, but Roger was just being antisemitic, and now he does the same thing he mocked Joan for.
JBK405
2025-12-29 03:37:25 +0000 UTCPeggy's words to the client never would have worked coming out of Don. The issue in that scene isn't that she is a woman. It is that Don would have been equally forceful without being as abrasive (e.g., that "come to Jesus" moment in an earlier season). (And please don't come at me with "you only think it's abrasive because she is a woman." Go watch that scene again.) Yes, I agree that even if she'd said Don-equivalent stuff (or even Don's words verbatim), it probably wouldn't have worked because she is a woman. But that is emphatically not what happened here. She didn't say Don stuff. Or even "Don stuff said Peggy's own way." The motivation and functions of their outbursts came from completely different places. When Don does his thing, he comes from place of confidence. Peggy's outburst obviously came out of frustration and desperation. She had already lost the client and was not longer trying to persuade, but was basically venting. What Peggy did here is more akin to when Don kicked the prudish bikini people out of the office in season 4. He was done. And so was she.
Julien
2025-12-29 03:04:00 +0000 UTC100%. At one point early in the show Roger walks in to Don's office and comments on him sitting in a chair doing nothing. Creative is letting your mind wander. I'm often working by watching birds, staring at sports, zoning out completely, being rude and silent.
Scott
2025-12-29 02:49:18 +0000 UTCGreat ep, while Bert is right about the "love leave" thing, I think the whole Don doesn't work, sleeps on the couch, leaves the office, goes to the movies, etc, is much more about knowledge work and the creative process than any sort of laziness.
Erik D
2025-12-29 02:38:39 +0000 UTCIn the full length, Lola for a second thinks we’re at the same restaurant as in Tomorrowland. I wish that made it to the edit because I think that’s entirely on purpose. The California diner is where Don realizes he’s “in love” with Megan, after the spilt milkshake. This time, he takes her to a HoJo which Don likely never experienced himself as a child, but these types of places are pure nostalgic Americana here, even if you never went to them. It’s like he was trying to recreate the trip to Disneyland (nostalgic Americana in itself) and introduce Megan to this amazing new (old) memory with the orange sherbet. Using TV logic, her rejection of the sherbet is her rejecting Don’s idea of the perfect American life. As an aside, how gorgeous is that shot of him on the payphone against the bright orange roof? Jesus Mad Men was a good looking show. Also the “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” needle drop. Perfect.
Jamie
2025-12-29 02:16:27 +0000 UTCThe show is The 100. Even if you haven't seen it, watching LM's reactions to the final few episodes is pretty entertaining if you're curious what it looks like to see them watch something that they actively hate.
Father of the Year
2025-12-29 02:12:34 +0000 UTCTop 5 episode of the show so far for me. I've got 1x12, 4x7, 4x8, 4x9, and 5x6.
Father of the Year
2025-12-29 02:04:17 +0000 UTCThe song Don is humming in the car near the end of the episode is "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles
Sid
2025-12-29 02:00:12 +0000 UTC"Bert does something?" yeah he doesn't descend from his lofty heights that often but every once in a while he's gotta smack Don on the nose with a newspaper when Don gets too full of shit After all, who's REALLY signing this contract anyway? 🙂😐 This IS my business! etc
Joshua Something
2025-12-29 01:40:27 +0000 UTCLove this episode, the joy Lola feels everytime she see's Roger on screen is great.
Pulp
2025-12-29 01:36:18 +0000 UTCOk I need to know this "should have been a 4-seasons" show that dragged out to 7 seasons! More broadly though, 7 seasons used to be the aspirational goal of any TV show, and perhaps still is (in the streaming era, I can't tell). But personally I find that it's the rare show that deserves to last that long. IMO most TV series would have done well to bow out after 4 or 5 seasons. Most start showing signs of creative rut by then and end up limping to a finish if they don't get abruptly cancelled. So kudos to brilliant shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad, BSG, Black Sails, or Succession, who knew to exit before they got long in the tooth. Obviously that doesn't mean every show that lasted past that declined in quality. For example, I think Buffy, LOST, Mad Men, and yes, even GOT, were worth every season. Finally, about Mad Men, every season is great including season 7, but I also feel like it ended when it needed to end.
Julien
2025-12-29 01:30:36 +0000 UTCHoward Johnson's was a hell of a time when I was a kid in the 90s. It was gone not long after, but all I remember was orange everything, tasty treats, and mini golf.
Scott
2025-12-29 01:30:18 +0000 UTCRoger continues to be GOATed
Darrach
2025-12-29 00:45:20 +0000 UTCOne of my favorite episodes!! I adore it
Taya
2025-12-29 00:20:29 +0000 UTC
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