Don Draper enters the modern age
I agree completely - the premier was about the emergence of the new Don, who is willing to give the world the pop story and blur the line between entertainment and advertisement. After all, people want two-pieces that are really bikinis and hams with just a touch of social scandal. http…

episode titles
Can someone help me understand the …OR…titles? When they were first introduced, they seemed to provide alternative lenses on each episode - you could either read it as this, or this. That made sense to me. But now they just seem to be the writers' two favourite lines - as if they just couldn't choose…

a new american family
I agree, the plot is pretty preposterous and it is very hard to know where the show will go from here. But one of the things I have always loved about the series was the suggestion that middle class suburban polygamy is not only not that different from the monogamous nuclear family down the…

Why did Pam have to get so annoying?!
Pam drove me nuts last night (and Jim)…but at least the rest of the cast was rocking it! Oscar's deadpan line to Michael that the hospital would have dictionaries; he should just take a thesaurus was brilliant!

Utah's most precious natural resource
At first I thought Barb's whole pill head diatribe was kind of crazy and out of place - funny and appropriate, but I didn't imagine they would make a major plot point out of it. Until I realized that the whole episode - nay, the whole season? - is about exactly this problem: the…

making a grand gesture
like driving to Mexico and offering to lay down your life for your son is the kind of stuff this show is made on. I agree - I don't really want Bill to get off for being a total asshole because of one grand gesture, but isn't that the way it seems to work? It isn't that the whole composite of…

Oh yeah - I had forgotten about that…I loved that plotline! Even so, having an affair with one's husband doesn't quite measure up to all the extra-marital ones the others have had!

time for Tommy
Anna coming back last night and the reveal that Bill had pre-marital sex with Margene too reminded me that Barb is the only one who hasn't had a sexual indiscretion outside of the marriage (Nicki with that lawyer and Margie with Benny). With only 3 episodes to go this season, surely it's her turn?! My…

infected like Rousseau's people?
is this the same "infection" and if Claire is really infected and is clearly a new kind of Rousseau figure, does that mean Rousseau was infected all along? How does this infection of darkness that overtakes the heart relate to the MIB/smoke monster? if it turns you evil in someway, I…

Sure, I agree, Bill is an asshole, but does that make this a bad season/episode?
In a way, the whole series has been building to the revelation that Bill can't keep his shit together and isn't really all that different than the men he's been running from/fighting his whole life. We've seen the patriarchical monster…

Oh, so this is why patriarchy is so awful
Last night was a real reminder of just how downright dark and slimy the entire moral universe these characters inhabit really is. I know we've seen more violence and backstabbing than we did last night, but we've probably never seen just how bleak things can get when one man's…

Divine providence works through… Nicki?
Favorite moment of the episode: Bill looking triumphantly over the sunset on DC, bursting with happiness and pride and a sense of divine blessing having just secured the near-endorsement of the senator, having no idea that the reason for Sissy Spacek's sudden change of heart was…

did anyone else wonder what Bill said to get Nicki out of those handcuffs?

totally - I loved it!

another great line…
Cam using his "cowboy voice" to get new tulips - oh my goodness, what I would give to hear his cowboy voice! That guy is amazing!

I loved the scene of Nicki crying precisely because it suggested that she really is a complicated bundle of conflicting motivations. After her incredible speech to Barb that if Sarah let those disgusting words "to death do us part" wash over her on her wedding day it would be the saddest, most lonely day of her life,…

Celestial marriage
I loved the way they finally let this theme come front and center: the importance of thinking of marriage, not just as a lifetime endeavor (um, hard enough!), but the key to one's eternal happiness. This is what causes all the hullabaloo over Sarah's marriage and what means there really is never a…

i'd forgotten that agribusiness line…
and it was brilliant! Phil maintains his hilarity no matter what! But I agree that this episode was not as good as others. The dog-butler was over the top and yes, the jokes were too obvious. They also relied too heavily on the whole slipped misunderstanding trope - the 'she's…

Does the trauma-drama never end?
We've been aware for a long time that the fear, control, jealousy, and extreme patriarchy of Juniper Creek takes its toll on its inhabitants, but it doesn't appear there is hope out of that morass, even with dear Roman dead. Just how much therapy would Nicki need to leave behind her…

The new opening took the levels of doubt and potential despair to new levels: maybe the Henricksons aren't on God's path after all (new church aside), but face the prospect of eternal disintegration? I love the way the show takes the religious lives of its characters seriously, without being sacrosanct about them,…