S4E12 – Blowing Smoke

Mad Men Men

We're not known for blowing smoke on Mad Men Men, but I guess we can make an exception for this penultimate episode of the season! That's right, we're back to discuss Season 4, Episode 12, titled "Blowing Smoke." Which finds the old gang at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce scrambling in the fog of losing Lucky Strike. As usual, we recap the episode, give our analysis, and reference the director/writer/actors’ commentaries as well as Mad Men Carousel by Matt Zoller Seitz.

In case this is your first time digging into our podcast, we recap Mad Men from the perspective of a first-time watcher, someone who only watched the show once while it was airing, and a superfan who watches excessively instead of having a functional social life.

“Blowing Smoke” Discussion Points:

• What can we make of the dynamic between Sally and Glen in this episode?
• How can we connect Don's American Cancer pitch to the "kids" in "Blowing Smoke"?
• Does this really feel like a penultimate episode?
• Is the Midge subplot all that believable?
• What is the current state of Don and Faye's relationship?

Extra credits:

Matthew Weiner created Mad Men, which aired on AMC from 2007 to 2015. John Slattery directed “Blowing Smoke” and Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton wrote the script. The show stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Robert Morse, and many more. Our intro music is “Mad Men Men” by Tom Davidson, which is an original remix of the show’s opening theme “A Beautiful Mine” by RJD2. Podcast illustration is by Jon Negroni. Our podcast hosts include Jon Negroni (Podcast Editor of InBetweenDrafts), Will Ashton (cohost of the Cinemaholics podcast), and Michael Overhulse (a guy who’s addicted to working at startups).

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