I thought he was saying what he's noticed every New York sophisto says. He's been utterly disinterested in politics (in a way that's exacerbated by his lack of any formal education) since the show started.

You answered your own question. Because it was in the office. You think a guy like that, in that era, is going to see an equivalence between booze and pot at work?

Why "Rizzo" in quotes? That's actually his name.

Everyone seems to be taking his side, whereas I kind of think he got what he deserved, telling her that secret. Did he not realize whom he was talking to? Or how her career would benefit (while he would be making a lateral move at best if SCDP had gotten the account)?

Because writing is hard?

I actually think it's brilliant. I never would have predicted it and I find it very hard to understand or anticipate scene-by-scene while it's happening, but of course Don Draper would be driven absolutely nuts by the spectacle of an actress as a wife (particularly a successful actress).

All right, you used an erudite word. Get over it! You're making it vastly worse by calling so much attention to it. (And, nobody even cares.)

Me too, and it kept screwing up my perception of what was going on (especially when they were in bed together giving each other soft, dewy looks).

The pacing is different. Lots and lots of brief scenes, with sudden jumps forward in time between them; and, just the middles of scenes, with very little preamble or stage setting. Almost no scenes that flow dramatically or chronologically from one to the next; very few causes followed directly by results; very little…

What's interesting is, unlike the way that they can (reasonably successfully) control our reactions to the ad pitches, they can't really control our reactions to Megan's job performance as an actor. I remember that there were an unusually high number of bitter differences of opinion about what we were supposed to…

I thought Don's Heinz pitch was brilliant, but Peggy's was a little brilliant-er.

It's real, and it's spectacular. (and nice possibly-inadvertent Watchmen quote, by the way.)

Yeah, glad to hear it! There was something really compelling about Foster's Dark Star…it had a wistful, sad 1970s quality that I really admired. I remember what a great job he did conveying all the computer's thankless struggles (which are played for laughs in the movie) and the inevitable breakdown of all the systems…

What I love is how Star Wars was "by" George Lucas and Star Trek The Motion Picture was "by" Roddenberry…as if those guys could possibly have written them.

Yes!

"Transplendent!"

@avclub-9a86162d4bf754718eec43bd2efbbcd4:disqus Watching a second time I realized how much of Sylvia's conversation is about guilt. She even tells Megan she "feels guilty" watching soap operas! Don's definitely got her number with his "you want to feel bad" rap.

@ellieschesler:disqus  Yeah, that was incredible. The important feature of that exchange was that, for Don, it was the rare "sheer cliff wall" that he could get no purchase on. It was possibly unique in his experience in that regard; there was absolutely no way to find an angle or a position or a presentation that…

@avclub-d8dda79582b3de3e7ee1f3f92af93ea5:disqus Yeah, this mystifies me. "Smug?" Compared to Trudy (since that's how we got on the topic)?

This affair is different. It's more pathological, more manic, more insanely risky (the woman downstairs who's your wife's confidante, for Christ's sake — obviously the question of "proximity" from the Pete/Trudy story is meant to correlete with this) and more inexplicable (Megan is 100% more likeable than Betty, and…