We’re nothing if not completely oversensitive here, so when there was a tiny bit of complaining last week that our weekly Mad Men recap/review had gotten a little long on the recap and a little short on the review, we threw wineglasses into roaring fireplaces and rent throwpillows in...

…and the Sword. There’s a whole lot of groovy going on in the offices of CGC. Four men and 3 turtlenecks (both real and mock), people. They really are similar in a lot of ways to SCDP, aggressively pushing this NEW and MODERN concept to its limits because they know it’s an...

…the Sword. It is impossible for us to sit through an entire episode without shouting out encouragement and support to these characters, as if we were watching a prize fight. When the chips were down once again for the SCDP crowd and they stood in their gleaming Potemkin village of an...

“Do you want a Miltown? It’s the only thing keeping me from chewing my nails off.” It’s a credit to Anne Dudek, who plays Francine, that she’s such a memorable character. In putting together this post it struck us that while she appeared in a lot of scenes, many...

Cover your Selectrics and meet us in the conference room, girls! Bring your cigarettes! Her Christmas party dress was in blue and green and we asked back then, what is it about the ’60s that made blue and green work so well together? And in a range of shades? We think it must have had...

With each episode this season, we thought, “Wow, Don’s really hit rock bottom this time” but each week he surprises us and manages to dig a little deeper. This week was the first time we were alarmed at how bad he looked and how fucked up he is, in every sense of the phrase....

Just a quick once over for Allison. She definitely favors mixing shades of blue. Not to mention she and Peggy could get into a pussy bow battle if it came to it. These are good girl clothes. Just enough style but not too flashy. Smart work clothes. A couple shots of Harry in his gold-toned...

Each season of Mad Men had its share of “moving the pieces around the board” episodes that rarely ever appear in anyone’s Top Ten list of favorites. Not particularly heavy on the themes or motifs that drive the show, these episodes almost always turn out to be setups for the...

“The hardest part was realizing you’re in charge.” There are so many aspects to Mad Men that make it a superior television series, but one of our favorites is the pool of rich peripheral characters who support and enhance the storylines, giving the main characters someone to...

Get out your shiny dresses and plaid tuxedos! Here’s Allison as the perfect secretary, both efficient and comfortable in her role as “office wife.” Outfits like this were worn by women long after they went out of style. We entered the workforce in the mid-eighties and older...

In yet another a testament to the Mad Men creators’ tendency to avoid cliches, this episode was NOT entitled, “Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot,” although it really could have been (or “You Can’t Go Home Again”). Old faces were coming out of the woodwork...

“Do you even see me here?” With a show as full of nuance and shades of gray as Mad Men, it’s expected that the viewer understands the imperfections and contradictions in all the characters. And while Mad Men is essentially a night-time soap opera, it remains refreshingly...

Darlings, welcome to Mad Style, Phase 2. Here’s how it works: we’re going to continue the Mad Style series until we go insane or until our typing fingers fall off. Phase 1, will continue with retrospectives on various characters like Kitty Romano, Helen Bishop, various prostitutes...

Remember Happy Days? Bear with us. We’re not getting nostalgic here. We’re talking about the sitcom set in a ’70s version of the ’50s. Remember how Fonzie became the breakout character and unexpected star of the show and it went from being a sitcom about Richie...

Season 3 Episode 7 – “Seven Twenty Three” Betty hosts the ladies of the Junior League in her brand new, 1963-fabulous living room and is appointed the new secretary of the local chapter. She’s doing everything an upper-middle class suburban wife would be expected to do...

Season 3 Episode 7 – “Seven Twenty Three” Pete and Peggy are nonplussed at the arrival of gifts from Duck Phillips; Cuban cigars for him and a Hermès scarf for her. You really get the sense of their inadvertent partnership with each other, the “secret...

Season 3 Episode 8 – “Souvenir” It’s a long story, but Pete gets himself involved in some drama with his neighbor’s au pair, who borrowed her boss’s dress and spilled wine all over it. Pete promises her that he can do something about it and winds up in the...

Season 3 Episode 1 – “Out of Town” After unsuccessfully attempting to reach her secretary on the intercom, Peggy leaves her office only to find her totally enthralled by the smarmy Mr. Hooker. He excuses himself and Lola, her secretary sheepishly admits that she could listen...

Season 3 Episode 2 – “Love Among the Ruins” Betty and Don have dinner with Lane Pryce and his miserable bitch of a wife. Betty’s pretty miserable herself. “I’m in a foul mood” are her first words to Don when he greets her. Not that we can blame her....

Well darlings, we’re 6 days away from the 4th season premiere of Mad Men and we’ve finally reached the S3 posts of Mad Style. Here’s our plan: we will post an installment of Mad Style every day this week until we’ve wrapped up the Joan, Betty, and Peggy posts. Once the...

Season 2 Episode 8 – “A Night to Remember” Peggy stops by to visit Anita and listens to her complain about her husband and mother. It’s a very simple scene beautifully acted by the both of them that really makes it feel like they’re sisters. Fr. Gill stops by to...