PSA: Some Media People Have Seen Season 7 Premiere

Despite Matthew Weiner and the cast's tight-lipness, it appears some members of the media have already seen S7E1, "Time Zones." Not only that, but they've written about it. Even so, Vulture and Entertainment Weekly have managed to not give anything major away. So bravo for that.

Here goes nothing:

Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture specifically noted that he doesn't want to be the bearer of spoilers, but proceeded to write about a thousand words. I'm not complaining, just pointing it out. He takes a slightly philosophical angle, discussing the hopelessness of the characters and how watching the show kind of makes the viewers feel like we are watching characters just drown on repeat. For this reason, people he knows have "quit" Mad Men.
  He writes:

They want their shows to offer some hope of meaningful change...Some people don't want to keep investing in a show about characters who keep fouling their own nests, then building new ones, then fouling those as well.

I guess this is only proof that there is no happy ending for Don, Roger, Peggy, Pete, you get it. Is Seitz basically saying, "Brace yourself, this season may put you in a dark place?" Cough cough, Dante's rings of hell continued? 

 In season 6, episode 1, "The Doorway," Don reads Dante's Inferno in Hawaii. I actually cannot think of a worst beach-read. He says out loud, which obviously means something, "Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road, woke to find myself alone, in a dark wood."

 Seitz notes that more than therapy, what these characters really need is Don's secret weapon, "the power of forgetting." I haven't seen the season 7 premiere, but based on the ending on season 6, it seems that Don no longer possesses that power. Or his life is actually so messed up that he just can't ignore it. Seitz focuses on Don's "doughier last year, sweatier, paler..." downfall of season 6. He's correct in that even his fling with Sylvia "lacked the power-fantasy glamour of his other affairs." If Don's going to be cheating all the time, she should at least be a hippie (Midge), own a department store (Rachel), live in an awesome mid-century modern in Palm Springs (Joy), or be a doctor (Faye)! 

He ends the review with a really great summation of what it says about you if you enjoy watching unhappy endings and people suffer:

 But still we watch. At least, we masochists who don’t care about likability or happy endings watch. It’s not a self-help guide. But there is some value in Mad Men’s spectacle of misbehavior. The show has nothing to teach us. It’s just being honest about the truths people discover and then disregard, and the lies they tell themselves, as history moves around them. They’re doing the best they can.

Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen gives the episode an A grade. Woooo. Jensen describes...

The paradise fantasy of California, all sunshine, tanned skin, and Disneyland bliss. The first line, spoken directly to camera by a character who has long embodied the idea of self-destruction and transformation, says it all: ''Are you ready? Because I want you to pay attention. This is the beginning of something. Do you have time to improve your life?''

 Haha. Sounds like Don breaks the fourth wall. But I'm sure he doesn't.  Imagine Don has trained as a life coach? Never. I mean, I'm not even entertaining the idea really. 

Jensen does confirm that the premiere introduces new characters, while also giving some screen time to supporting characters...

One of the most artful aspects of the premiere is how it gives meaningful moments to so many supporting characters — Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), Joan (Christina Hendricks), and Ken (Aaron Staton) — while remaining largely about Don.

 That's awesome. 

A Q&A With Jon Hamm

Whateva

 The Mad Men blog shares a Q&A with Jon Hamm about his character's "impetuous side." You mean, wanting to go to Cali very badly and then changing his mind? Or delivering the perfect Hershey's chocolate pitch, and then revealing that he actually bought the chocolate bar with money he stole from the pockets of a prostitute's patrons? Sorry, I'll have some sympathy.

Here are my takeaways from the interview as well as "exclusive" images from season 7's premiere. I had the photos strewn throughout this post, even though they have nothing to do with Don, because I honestly am not sure what to make of them. 

So Matthew Weiner says one theme for season 7 is the material vs. immaterial life. We're thinking ambition vs. spirituality and happiness. I can say forsure that this will be something Peggy deals with, in addition to Don. I imagine that as the season progresses we will notice more and more similarities between the two characters. cc: that maaajor New York Magazine article on Elisabeth Moss. Yeah, the one with the overalls and side boob. Focusing on Don though, Jon says that this season will further exhibit Don's search for peace from damaged childhood. Oooh, didn't see that one coming. This cast has become a team of professional spoiler-hiders.

I love that Jon refers back to the pilot as being one of his most shocking moments. Don has done some shocking things in six, thirteen episode seasons. Even so, there is no better moment then when you realize at the end of the pilot that Don is married. Hamm says, "And then all of sudden you go, 'Oh God, this guy is not who we think he is.' And then you reveal that there are way deeper layers to this guy’s subterfuge." And we've been dealing with this ever since. But we still definitely kinda love him.

And now for those images:

Dawn, keep the scarf...and nice hair. #70sapproaching

Roger Sterling drinks a bloody Mary, shocker. He does look a little older though.

Peggy looks very assertive and surprisingly unstressed. I wonder if she's wearing matching pants with that blazer.

Vital Info: What Kiernan Eats

Image via Jeffs60s.com.

The new Coveteur-of-food blogs has deemed it necessary that we know what our favorite actors and actresses are ingesting. I am reblogging this one because I kind of care about what Kiernan Shipka eats, and unless you stop reading at this exact moment, you kind of do too.

And no, despite the cool collage of 60s food above, Kiernan eats food of the 21st Century. I know, major bummer. You'll be glad to know that her ideal day in dining includes nothing blatantly dietetic, so she is, in that way, a normal 14-year-old. Thank the lord she has not taken to juice fasting, like others. Her daily intake does include some foods that I'm pretty sure I wasn't eating at that age, but hey, you can't really blame her for being a mini-adult, basically. I mean, she wore a Céline plain back sweater to the interview. I always wondered who in the world buys those.

On a perfect day she'd go for some avocado toast for breakfast, sushi for lunch, and French food for dinner. Best part is, she loves any kind of donut (we have so much in common!). And she wrote a paper about avocados. I will save you the Google Search ("essays on avocados").

Kiernan, I'm free on Sundays.

Sally All Grown Up

So the world is projecting its "prone to becoming obsessed with mature, talented teen stars" capabilities onto Kiernan Shipka, and I'm totally on board. By no means do I want this to become the Kiernan Shipka/Sally Draper obsession blog, and it won't. Let me know if it's getting too much...really.

For now, I'd love to present a recent editorial by Vanity Fair, that has the 14-year-old posing in high fashion labels like Balenciaga and Saint Laurent. As much as I want to critique the star looking a bit too old, I can't, because she also looks quite angelic.

Below are my absolute favorite photos from the shoot, and a few takeaways from the story: 

1. Kiernan got dropped off at the coffee shop, where she met editor Bruce Handy, by her mom. Nice touch that it wasn't an agent.

2. She wore a vintage Céline sweater, alongside a Rag & Bone skirt. She solidified her adolescent yet high fashion tendencies by keeping a Hello Kitty wallet inside a brightly colored Miu Miu purse.

 

3. We get an amazing recap of all of Sally's greatest moments: "More recently, the teenage Sally has been scolded for masturbating, walked in on her step-grandmother giving one of Don’s colleagues a blow job, had her first period, while playing hooky at the Museum of Natural History, caught her father on top of his latest mistress, boasted to friends that 'I know how to make a Tom Collins,' and been given a cigarette by her mother in an odd moment of familial détente." Good times, good times.

4. Picking child actors when they are 6 years old is a risk: "You don’t think when you pick someone when they’re six years old that they’re going to do that seven years later.” It was a bonus, or luck, that she turned out to be both a 'sponge' and a 'prodigy.'"

5. Sally's parents get a say in the plot. I mean, she is their daughter. Weiner discusses any controversial scenes that Sally may be a part of with her mother.  Weiner said, “We are all very cognizant that we’re talking about a real childhood here. I don’t want to take away Kiernan’s innocence as we take away Sally’s, so we’re very careful about that." That's nice.

6. Last but not least, the article ends with:

“Please don’t let Sally break our hearts this season.”

“I can’t promise that,” she said sweetly. 

Ouch.