Mad Men - Season 4 - Episode 6 - "Waldorf Stories"

I thought it was great.

Enjoying the story line of when Sterling met Draper.

The elevator scene at the end was great.

Do any of you think Don boned Joan? The kiss was surprising to see. At the end, when Roger was asking Don to thank him and it cuts to a flashback, I don't think Roger hired him. Don got him drunk and the next morning made up the story about Roger saying "Welcome aboard."

I actually could have done without ever knowing how Don got his break.

Last week's episode was the greatest ever in my opinion and this one was solid but not great.

I hate Betty like the rest of you but I don't think that means I don't like seeing her be a big portion of the show. I love seeing the interactions between her and Don when one is dropping off the kids, etc. Watching her be an awful mother to Sally is one of my favorite parts of the show ("I'll chop your tongue off young lady if I find out you are lying to me!")

I also don't buy that Don would pitch Life under that circumstance. A) He's never gotten that kind of silly drunk before - he gets quiet/contemplative drunk, not silly drunk and B) He would never take an important client that lightly. I think what would have really happened is that they'd have not returned to the office and just put up the Life guys in a nice hotel for the weekend, or (more realistically) flown/trained it to Philadelphia on Monday themselves to pitch it in person.

Finally, the real Don Draper wouldn't give a shite about borrowing a shitty slogan from that kid he interviewed. If the kid showed Don his ideas and Don used one. Unethical maybe, but who's going to prove it? Peggy is really going to fall on the sword over that to try and oust Draper? Nah.

This weeks episode had a lot of little misses IMO but still - it's Mad Men and it's the best thing running.

The "Don gets hired" story was okay, but Hamm put the "golly gee" stuff on a little thick. Hard to see that guy turning into the cut-throat Don Draper.

Stealing the idea from the interviewee was blown out of proportion. I had a boss who would tell interviewees to come back with three great ideas for his company. Then he wouldn't hire them.

It's good to see that even Don Draper gets beer goggles and fricks an ugly bitch sometimes.

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I also don't buy that Don would pitch Life under that circumstance. A) He's never gotten that kind of silly drunk before - he gets quiet/contemplative drunk, not silly drunk and B) He would never take an important client that lightly. I think what would have really happened is that they'd have not returned to the office and just put up the Life guys in a nice hotel for the weekend, or (more realistically) flown/trained it to Philadelphia on Monday themselves to pitch it in person.

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Don't you think that's kind of the point of the season thus far though? Don, has been sinking further and further into a drunken stupor throughout the season. It's the fact that we haven't seen Don in such a state before that we're beginning to understand just how much the drinking is affecting him. It's not just changing his ability to perform work; it's changing his ability to be Don Draper.

Clearly the LIFE presentation was to highlight this change even more. It wasn't Don pitching ideas as much as it was Dick Whitman showing himself. And then Dick reared his head again with the waitress at the coffee shop. Don's life is literally falling apart at the moment. For a man that has taken so many years to construct a "perfect" life for himself, he's quickly losing grasp.

I will agree that the "aw shucks" component of Don in the past seemed a little over done. However, I wouldn't be opposed to chalking it up as Don wooing Roger by feigning a degree of callowness to his shtick.

Can't say I disagree with your last point. Don't know why he'd care so much to let the guy work for him (unless the parallels of Danny to Don starting out resonated enough to give him a chance). Of course, that's not how the show played it so I doubt it.

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Don't you think that's kind of the point of the season thus far though? Don, has been sinking further and further into a drunken stupor throughout the season. It's the fact that we haven't seen Don in such a state before that we're beginning to understand just how much the drinking is affecting him. It's not just changing his ability to perform work; it's changing his ability to be Don Draper.

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I don't doubt that Draper is having a rough patch (although the Honda stunt was maybe his best move ever), but he's just not a goofy/happy drunk. That's the only scene that I really didn't like because he would not act that way under any circumstances. The award wasn't that big of a deal and Draper wouldn't get that giddy about a stupid award (when there were 59 others awared) in the first place.

i can say with all honesty that this was my least favorite episode in the history of Mad Men.

Don getting drunk and a) embarassing himself in the Life meeting, and b) sleeping with two women and revealing his real name.. you've got to be kidding me. Draper drinks like a fish, now all of a sudden he can't handle his liquor? i'm not buying it. the writers fudged up on this one.

in regards to the flashback scenes I was really disappointed that they made this the backstory to Don getting hired. he basically got Roger drunk and then lied to land the job. throughout the entire series they've made Draper out to be a pull up your bootstraps, self-made man and now they reveal that he was a hack who conned his way into a position at Sterling-Cooper? big time fail, imo.

Peggy's story line was the only redeeming quality of this episode, but even it seemed too hammy and contrived. Peggy is one of my least favorite characters, but at least her character shows growth in the series, while the writers are busy tearing everyone else down or, so it would seem, still in the process of figuring out themselves just who these characters are.

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not really

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huh? i thought he banged that ad woman then the maid?