广告狂人 第六季

每当BGM 响起，都能让人闭上眼，细细的回味。
每一季的最后一集都给人巨大的冲击，关上了一扇窗，又打一扇门。

Don从小在妓院里面长大，他妈是一个whore，而ta根本不知道自己的父亲是谁。这样的经历一方面扭曲了ta在性上的观念，不停地需要各种女人，释放欲望，如无节制的种马一般；另一方面，欲望特别性欲在其内心的灼烧，使得ta对于人性有人特别的洞察，能准确地发挖大众内心深处的隐秘的判断因素，从而成为一个牛逼的广告人。

在Don的少年时代中，除了从小在妓院中的经历之外，便以在农场被收养时光，随后的朝鲜战争（我们称抗美援朝）ta盗用了战友的名字，当了逃兵，这使得ta有了新的名字、新的身份和新的生活。

作为一个成功的广告人，必须和要过去的身份做一次彻底的告别，所以即使是ta相爱多年的妻子betty，依旧不知道他过往的故事；让别人不知道一件事情是容易的，而让自己忘记一些事情是很难的，妓院的经历与逃兵的事情如同两把铁锥戳在他的脊梁骨上，当Don孤独而迷茫地看着一切，只有无何止偷情和不知道疲惫的工作能让他feel better。尽管如何，ta依旧看重家庭的价值，前妻betty因为无法忍受ta对于身份多年的隐瞒以及出轨的事实，离开了ta。
Don之所有要隐瞒这些事实，表面上的原因是其事业和家庭将受到影响，可是对于一个才华横溢的广告人来说，ta在这个圈子里的地位完全是由ta 的无数个amazing的创意奠定的，对于广告主来说有创意就足够了，对于一个真正爱ta的女人来说，过去的就已经过去，爱便是谅解一切的原因与理解，前妻betty离开ta其实是她自己有婚外情。其实，真正使得他隐瞒的原因在于，他没有办法面对自己，没有办法面对自己是一个婊子养的，是一个逃兵的事实，这个事实虽然发生了，但Don从来没有办法接受，也没打算去面对，ta觉得这些事情是上帝无法原谅的。（这句话在Seanson6 13中借着牧师说了出来）

看着生活与工作中的Don，其实是叫人恨不起来的，他讨厌阴谋与诡计，不喜欢算计别人，工作中极为严苛，不能容忍丝毫的欺骗与应付，甚至为了几千块钱，逼死了自己的同事，对于那些自己身上隐藏着的缺陷，Don是绝不能容忍的，这样的不容忍对外就表现在对人的严苛上面。同时，ta对于每一个同事都略有温情，他是合伙人中唯一拒绝Joan用“身体”换订单。

最大的变化出现在ta的邻居女人偷情，被女儿撞见了……　父爱触发了ta内心的自责，下定决心要面对过去的自己，在好时巧克力的策划说明会上，当着所有人，讲述了之后在妓院长大的事情。

办公室里面，Don帮助了Ted，Ted却在背后捅了一刀；Peggy和Ted一起，干掉了自己的引路人Don；其它几位合伙人，开会将Don暂时开除出公司，这一幕无比残酷，Ted没有出现，其它几位中roger、Joan本应该是Don的朋友，可是他俩都似乎投了赞成票。
家庭中，Megen也暗示为了事业，可能要离婚。

事业、家庭都陷入深深的危机，此刻，Don似乎得到了女儿的宽恕。

告别过去，Don终于要重生了，underdog Don强势逆袭!

半个月看完整整6季的《Mad Men》，和剧中人一起回顾了那个最好也是最坏的美国60黄金时代，我久久都走不出对这几位执着在纽约麦迪逊大街打拼的人物的爱与恨。

喜欢Don把每一件广告都当做一件艺术品去精心“烹调”。60年代，没有“大数据”洞察广告人的工作效率，也没有数据挖掘去真正有效的找到广告人所要推销的对象。好的广告人就是凭借在这一行多年的经验和审美，一而再、再而三的抓住人们的眼球和心理诉求。无疑，Don是大师中的大师！他总是能够一击即中，人们心里最想要的那个点，反复拿捏，让所有看过他作品的人，欲罢不能。犹记得第1季里，还是Don老婆的Betty买啤酒招呼朋友，因为看了Don的广告，自然而然被驱使买了Don宣传的牌子，正中他的下怀，Betty得知后气愤不已。我想她一直有些神经质，进而要离婚的原因也主要是想逃脱Don这种无形的控制，在职场上她已经放弃妥协了，在心理自由上，她一定要力争到底，让自己自由呼吸，某种意义讲，Betty还是非常勇敢的。

如此成功、在外人眼里着实让人羡慕的“高富帅”、麦迪逊广告第一人Don Draper却对“安全感”如此的渴求。

在第6季里表现的尤为明显。如果看前几季不理解他为什么不选和自己在精神上更加匹配的心理学女博士，进而选天真烂漫的女秘书做老婆，这一季其实已经昭然若揭——曾经的小秘书Megan能够安抚好Don的孩子，让他们不给自己带来烦恼。诚然，Don根本就不想当一个父亲，因为他从出生到现在，从来不知道“父亲”为何物，而Megan恰恰能够帮他肩负起这份责任，成为Don不敢面对现实的保护伞。他害怕自己不能给与子女父亲的爱，他害怕他们成为未来的自己，他更害怕别人知道真实的Don。

好故事的”好“就在于它不会让你猜到结局，等你看到它的结局之时，又感到很妙。

编剧赋予了Don非常丰满的人性，虽然很多人并不喜欢第6季里面很多的隐喻，比如他为什么疯狂的要找到自己的第一部广告作品，又为什么近乎迷恋地和医生的老婆偷情。其实，Don作为Don他是在开始学会面对真实的自己——懦弱、胆小、逃避、没有责任感的本性。他在推销巧克力的时候，忽然向客户坦诚他的身世，他决定不去加州，而是回到自己小时候长大的地方，这一次，他真的决定勇敢了么？

《广告狂人》里最棒的地方在于，它并没有绝对的主角，因为现实生活里几乎我们每个正常人都能从中找到自己的影子，而Don是一个中心，把他们的故事都一点点带出，让我们感受现实的残忍与人生的无奈。

如果说Don缺乏安全感是因为害怕面对过去、面对自己，而他最好的学生——Peggy的安全感源于别人的认可。

相信所有在职场上打拼的姑娘们心中都有个”Peggy“.

她出身纽约乡下，一心要变成”曼哈顿“姑娘。我还记得在第2季时，这个心气很高的姑娘去相亲，那时候她根本不懂打扮、也不知道自己能够做什么，在餐厅里学着所有纽约姑娘们抽烟被呛到，她的相亲对象被她拒绝后，直接就说——你再怎么学，也永远逃脱不了你本身这股土气，你就是你，这辈子也变不了曼哈顿女孩。

Peggy想必从来没有一刻是觉得安全的，哪怕她从一个连午餐都靠混的小秘书逐渐历练成身着考究、纽约广告界争相追捧的广告新人王，甚至在第6季的最后一集的最后一个镜头里，Peggy开始在Don的办公室里办公，有一丝”代替Don“的味道。

六季《广告狂人》单纯提出Peggy这个生猛的姑娘来看就是一部美国版的《杜拉拉升职记》，她也疑惑过到底是和老板睡一觉一举成为老板夫人好还是努力成为老板？显然她选择了后者，因为当老板更有安全感，她可以不被人左右，选择自己喜欢的事情去做。

Peggy和Don一样都是工作狂，她天资聪颖，知道读书会让自己更加美丽，也会让广告圈的美女们都对她放送警惕，因而更能帮助她走好职场的每一步。在爱情的道路上，她从来不太花心思，因为这个选项无法给她更多的实在感，爱情无法让她住在上东区、爱情无法让她告诉别人”真正的Peggy是什么样？“我想，她是一个不喜欢被贴上”某个男人的女人“这样的标签的人，虽然本季她不可避免的陷入了对上司的爱恋，但是她真正爱上的，应该不是上司本人，而是职场上那个严于律己与Don做事风格完全不一样的对手，最好的敌人就是最好的爱人。

Peggy知道Betty并不幸福，也明白新一任的Don夫人不会有几天好的光景，富裕是好物，却无法快乐。她最敬重的应该是在职场里真正第一个给她指点迷津的Jonie，这个脖子上总是带着一根金笔暗示她在这个OFFICE里的地位性感尤物。

其实这样的身份表明又何尝不是一种对"安全感"捍卫到牢不可破的心虚之姿？

Jonie和Peggy不一样，后者具有攻击性，而她则是守卫者，她不贪心，就只想守卫着自己小小的世界，这个世界可以不需要男人、不需要父母的爱，更不需要同情，但她一定要十足的踏实感，因此，她委身成为了合伙人，这份踏实与舒心，比什么都重要，因此，她心甘情愿的忍耐。

剧中还有一大批不断努力、却又被各自生活所困扰的鲜活人物，比如聪明事故的Peter，老成善良的Sterling，他们又何尝不是我们中某一个人的缩影？

《广告狂人》让我时常想起伯格曼的《野草莓》，那么多隐喻，却又无法用语言能够简单形容，明明故事的背景设置在固定的年代，但是又像时间一样，永不停留，穿插在我们的世界。

当下，我们不安和躁动，我们埋怨这个时代和社会强加给我们太多的责任与负担，其实，反过来想想，这些压得人喘不过气的东西都来自于我们源源不断的“缺乏安全感”。

《广告狂人》就是一面镜子，让我们时刻看看自己的真相，不要忘记每个人的美与丑。

MM 607 ‘Men With A Plan’ Recap


Sometimes, you don’t need 20 years to find everything to be changed, or, to be back where they were.

Hello again, Peg. Ciao ciao, Slyvia.

The love affair was finally put an end to. (But surely we will see Slyvia and her husbands again, after all neighbours don’t easily disappear) This time there’s something more to the all-too-similar-Don’s-affair. It is noteworthy that it was Slyvia who called it a day, despite the fact that she was in a passive and inferior state for a fairly long time. After Don’s king pose (Kudos to Vulture’s prev. insightful recap), Slyvia claimed she felt ashamed and quit. We know that Don is never a guy that get attached to someone and he is not depending on her psychologically. But I would say it’s a mutual dependency. Slyvia didn’t need to depend on Don to stop. She had the power to do it herself.

Mutual dependency found further expression in the incident of Joan. Suffering a pungent ache, Joan was helped by Bob the nice guy. Joan, a partner, still depended on Bob to fake to be bothering her all the way across the office so as to escort her to the hospital. Due to the fact that Bob ran into Burt and knew somehow his future in the firm wasn’t looking good first and then noticed Joan was under the weather, it was fair to doubt Bob did it partially for his own good. But his quick response, little trick, care and gentlemanship would still be very charming to any women, let alone the single mother Joan. Later, the powerful did do the young a great favour and helped him to stay in the firm.

Talking about young and powerful. The beautiful combination of the two was back in office with Don Draper - welcome back, Peggy!

This episode showed the two bosses of Peg came together, displaying the two contradictary ways they worked with her. With Ted being all-time very nice, Don just couldn’t help being cold and mean. I almost forget the real dynamics between the two because their last goodbye was so tenderly heartbreaking and the brief meetings were warm. But, as Peg disclosed, Don never invited her out for a dinner, not to say to ask her back. Come on Peg. Don only ‘asked’, or beg to be precise, his lovers. Beg them to stay. To be with him. But you were not one of them. That made you truly special.

Special. Special was the motif of this episode. Ads men take pains to think the way to present their clients products as the most special one, even though they are as lame as margarine. Even in the hospital scene, Bob showed his wit to woo a client to the nurse on duty - to attract her attention, to make her believe herself to be special because they counted on her speciality.

Don wanted to feel special. To feel being serviced, and the service had to be discreetly thought about after hours in an empty hotel ensuit deprived of anything entertaining. But he realised he wasn’t the special one, not above the clouds. Regardless how frustratingly eloquent Don could be, Ted was the philosopher above the cloud - after all, Ted was the guy ‘who flew us up in his(client’s) own plane’.

For some, the plane ascends to escatsy, to the masterpiece of God, but for others, the plane descends to hell. The episode, again ladened with death allusions and talks, finally gives me a reason to forgive it. It was indeed a period of rioting, of shooting, of innocent men and women dying. No wonder of the gloom and doom.

In the end, the flight was safe and sound. All you need was some belief - believe that ‘above the clouds, it’s sunny as summer’. To find belief? No easy for Don.




Odds and Ends

The way Ted asked the blonde girl at meeting to continue the report is just…charming. Oh my. How did he do that? To pretend to be a shortsighted?

MM 613 'In Care Of' Recap


The last episode of season 6 of Mad Men encapsulated runaway of all forms besides showing all the serious and casual commitments being made and broken.

‘If you wanna run, I’d do it now.’ - Pete

S6E13 wrapped up the whole season of the mad late 1960s showing the aftermath of being casual at decision-making whilst tagging the whole period as ‘not serious’.

‘Hershey’s isn’t serious’ about advertising. Teenages were not serious about drinking and law; men were not serious about their families and children; people were not serious about making promises. Don, the most notorious among all, breached work taboo and were considered not serious about clients and campaign presentations (Hershey’s, Sheraton, newspaper and tabacco, to name just a few). All they wanted was run.

Ted promised that he would leave his wife and escaped to Hawaii with Peg. Don told Megan they would move to L.A. and be happy again. Sally went to a boarding school to stay away from her always-occupied-and-couldn’t-pick-her-children mother and her ‘immoral’ dad. Even Pete’s mother ran away and got married with Manolo, both of whom ended up disappearing into thin air. Trudy said to Pete, who lost his mother, left his families and moved to the south, ‘You are free from everything.’

The men made decisions easily. To shoot two not one presidents, to start a war, to kill civil rights leader and innocent people on a foreign land. They were the decision-makers. And those who were being made the decisions were voiceless and vacant in the pictures.

‘You probably dictate the memo right to her and had no idea she’d be affected.’ - Stan

Stan’s remark was not just about Dawn, whose appearance and subplots in the whole season were disappointly scarce and had no punchline whatsoever, it also rang true for Peg and Ted.

Though I was for a moment believing that Ted would leave his wife and be with Peg and got really excited for the next season of this couple-to-be, I felt punched in the face when the guilty-look Ted showed up in Don’s office asking Don to put three hundred miles between him and Peg. But you must admit, what Ted did was right. Nevertheless, whatever he decided to do, the memo of divorce or breaking up would still hurt the other woman in his bed, badly.

The words were broken. The women were left to be disappointed. Yet as Roger pointed out, ‘you learn more from disappointment than you do from success’, will the women whose husband, lover, dad failed them, stood up and learned something? Looking at the silouette of Peg in Don’s office, I knew she would (and Peg&Elizabeth Moss was never an disappointment on the screen). Sally was looking at her father in the eye before the deserted two-story house that had once been a brothel and home to her father. I hoped she would pull her young self together and saw something big from the experience that her father went through, from a ragged boy to a man in clean suits and tie and hat. As Meg darted out of the flat, I was fingercrossing and wished she would not be written off the show(as what was done to her part in her show). The scenario of Don taking away Stan’s opportunity bore a resemblance to what Megan did to her European friend in the last episode of season five, yet we failed to see more dark and manipulative side of Megan this season. I hoped to see the independent-minded Megan of power return next year.

SC&P decided that they could survive with a casual vacancy. And indeed, it would not be too much to ask that this casual vacancy could remind Don of his responsibility since he would sure see the firm run normally, if not perfectly, without him.

Take a break.

‘Don’t you always go home, though? ’ - Peggy

广告狂人第六季结束了。爱的人更爱了，恨的人更恨了。
冲着剧名来学做广告的，失望着没看到大放异彩的创意；冲着男主来看艳遇的，被一个老女人的床戏深深伤了荷尔蒙。如果你只看到了这些，或许并不能说你没看懂Mad Men，但至少可以确定，你还没读懂Don Draper。

Don有过很多女人。你可能惊艳于风情不变风尘不染的Betty，你可能因那段挥之不去的Zou bisou而默认Megan的性感，你还可能沉迷于海洛因一般迷恋Midge，你还可能感激Faye为爱不顾一切的痴狂，还有田园诗歌般的小学老师，还有娇柔放浪的异国空姐，还有渴望婚姻的犹太女人，还有不谙世事的普通秘书，还有莫名其妙的加州艳遇，还有太多太多...
虽然不是每个女人都足以惊艳时光，但的确每一个都可谓一芳尤物。但所有的女人之于Don，都只是一个过程的存在，就像酒吧摇曳的红唇里突出的那股袅袅的烟圈 “Are you alone？”

但如果只能选一个最特别的女人。我想一定是Anna。只有你读懂了Ann对于Don的意义，才会读懂第六季老女人那句“Find your peace”，才能真正读懂了那个从高处坠落，又被轻柔唤醒的Don Draper.

其实，Mad Men无关广告人。
从头到尾，它只讲了两种人，男人和女人。

他自己盗用别人身份，逃离战场，却不能容忍合伙人盗用他的签名。


他因盗用身份让公司损失几百万的生意，却不能容忍合伙人提前擅自领取7500元分红。逼死了合伙人。

他对自己所冒充身份的妻子充满温情，却对自己弟弟极其冷默，间接导致弟弟自杀。

他在很多人困难时帮助他们，却在平时给他们很多的冷漠和苛刻。

他在办公室像打了鸡血，回到家总是一滩泥。

他对婚姻从不忠诚，却质疑别人的诚信。

他搞了几个秘书，却强调公私分明。

他对有能力的下属总是要求秩序规则，他在上司合伙人面前总是不讲规则。

他自己乱搞的女人数不清，却让两任老婆严防死守。

他总是用一幅君子面貌看待风流的罗杰，却不知罗杰是真正的有情有义的人。

他把每次约会都搞得像交配，罗杰把每次约会都变成恋爱。

他总是放任自己的冷漠傲慢自大，却不能容忍下属和别人的骄傲。

他总是将一切归罪于自己的童年，却不肯给孩子温馨的童年。

他总是贬斥皮特，却不知皮特是个动力强劲，判断准确，很讲原则，极为上进的人，一个忠实的达尔文主义者，一个道德标准比唐高的人，一个追求公平的人，一个很像乔布斯的人。

他总是打压皮特，却又在其最需要帮助时候默默帮了他。

她可能以为joan轻浮，实际joan毫不轻浮，而他自己极其轻浮。

他身为广告创意人，却对文学艺术不感冒。