Mad Men

[JennyB]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis. Lots of remarkable observations. But the one I want to share is that the episode where the Limey gets his foot chopped off by the riding mower is meant to parallel and predict JFK's assassination in a few months time. The slow moving vehicle, the blood spatter, Joan spending the rest of the episode covered in his blood, the horrified onlookers, the promising young executive cut down in his prime. Supposedly the speed and movement of the lawnmower is sync'd up to the convertible in the Zapruder film. The book references a video essay about it, but I couldn't find it online. Given the attention to detail of the show, yeah, it has to be intentional, tho it clearly went over my head at the time.

Interesting! The visual with Joan, especially.

[Dr. Medulla]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis. Lots of remarkable observations. But the one I want to share is that the episode where the Limey gets his foot chopped off by the riding mower is meant to parallel and predict JFK's assassination in a few months time. The slow moving vehicle, the blood spatter, Joan spending the rest of the episode covered in his blood, the horrified onlookers, the promising young executive cut down in his prime. Supposedly the speed and movement of the lawnmower is sync'd up to the convertible in the Zapruder film. The book references a video essay about it, but I couldn't find it online. Given the attention to detail of the show, yeah, it has to be intentional, tho it clearly went over my head at the time.

Interesting! The visual with Joan, especially.

There are two separate references to the parallels in the book, with some overlapping info:

Another, more resonant, parallel can be found in the details of the visit, which amounts to a premonition of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which will happen in Dallas, Texas, almost exactly five months later. The main floor of Sterling Cooper is Dealey Plaza, the lawnmower is the motorcade, and the accident is the assassination that changes the course of Sterling Cooper’s history and the lives of its employees. Critics Amanda Marcotte and Kevin B. Lee laid out the parallels in a 2012 video essay for the criticism website Press Play: Guy MacKendrick as a JFK type; Roger saying that Guy “lost it right when he got in the door”; Joan walking around in her bloodstained dress, à la Jacqueline Kennedy, hours after the event.

It’s packed with uncanny gestures, situations, and objects that make it feel like a premonition of November 22, 1963—or perhaps like the sort of dream that a Sterling Cooper employee might have about the Kennedy murder weeks after the event, conflating the office with Dealey Plaza: the riding tractor as presidential limousine; the partiers as onlookers gathered along the motorcade route; Joan as Jackie Kennedy, reaching down to tie off Guy’s bleeding foot just as the First Lady reached out to grab a piece of her husband’s skull, then—like Jackie—spending the rest of the day in a bloodstained dress. In fact, if you lay the Zapruder film and the last few seconds of the lawn-mower sequence on an editing timeline that synchronizes the killing shot with Lois running over Guy’s foot, as Mad Men aficionados Kevin B. Lee and Amanda Marcotte have done, you’ll see that the filmmakers took the trouble to match Lois swerving and the president’s limousine braking, right down to the frame.

[Mimi]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis. Lots of remarkable observations. But the one I want to share is that the episode where the Limey gets his foot chopped off by the riding mower is meant to parallel and predict JFK's assassination in a few months time. The slow moving vehicle, the blood spatter, Joan spending the rest of the episode covered in his blood, the horrified onlookers, the promising young executive cut down in his prime. Supposedly the speed and movement of the lawnmower is sync'd up to the convertible in the Zapruder film. The book references a video essay about it, but I couldn't find it online. Given the attention to detail of the show, yeah, it has to be intentional, tho it clearly went over my head at the time.

Wow. I had no idea. I still watch reruns and catch new things all the time.

[Dr. Medulla]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis. Lots of remarkable observations. But the one I want to share is that the episode where the Limey gets his foot chopped off by the riding mower is meant to parallel and predict JFK's assassination in a few months time. The slow moving vehicle, the blood spatter, Joan spending the rest of the episode covered in his blood, the horrified onlookers, the promising young executive cut down in his prime. Supposedly the speed and movement of the lawnmower is sync'd up to the convertible in the Zapruder film. The book references a video essay about it, but I couldn't find it online. Given the attention to detail of the show, yeah, it has to be intentional, tho it clearly went over my head at the time.

Wow. I had no idea. I still watch reruns and catch new things all the time.

If you do eBooks, this is what I'm reading: https://b-ok.cc/book/2600119/788400

Very useful to consult before or after episodes for those kinds of observations.

[tepista]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis.

This is the one time I insist you DO read it in the bathtub.

[Mimi]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis. Lots of remarkable observations. But the one I want to share is that the episode where the Limey gets his foot chopped off by the riding mower is meant to parallel and predict JFK's assassination in a few months time. The slow moving vehicle, the blood spatter, Joan spending the rest of the episode covered in his blood, the horrified onlookers, the promising young executive cut down in his prime. Supposedly the speed and movement of the lawnmower is sync'd up to the convertible in the Zapruder film. The book references a video essay about it, but I couldn't find it online. Given the attention to detail of the show, yeah, it has to be intentional, tho it clearly went over my head at the time.

Wow. I had no idea. I still watch reruns and catch new things all the time.

If you do eBooks, this is what I'm reading: https://b-ok.cc/book/2600119/788400

Very useful to consult before or after episodes for those kinds of observations.

I worry that it'll steal the magic for me. Know what I mean?

[Dr. Medulla]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis. Lots of remarkable observations. But the one I want to share is that the episode where the Limey gets his foot chopped off by the riding mower is meant to parallel and predict JFK's assassination in a few months time. The slow moving vehicle, the blood spatter, Joan spending the rest of the episode covered in his blood, the horrified onlookers, the promising young executive cut down in his prime. Supposedly the speed and movement of the lawnmower is sync'd up to the convertible in the Zapruder film. The book references a video essay about it, but I couldn't find it online. Given the attention to detail of the show, yeah, it has to be intentional, tho it clearly went over my head at the time.

Wow. I had no idea. I still watch reruns and catch new things all the time.

If you do eBooks, this is what I'm reading: https://b-ok.cc/book/2600119/788400

Very useful to consult before or after episodes for those kinds of observations.

I worry that it'll steal the magic for me. Know what I mean?

Perhaps it might, but I'm finding it enlightening. Because I'm not a lit guy, the analyses are the kinds of things I don't really consider.

[Dr. Medulla]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis.

This is the one time I insist you DO read it in the bathtub.

I'm not following …

[tepista]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis.

This is the one time I insist you DO read it in the bathtub.

I'm not following …

not hidden meaning, I always tease you for reading in the tub, that one belongs in the tub!

[Dr. Medulla]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis.

This is the one time I insist you DO read it in the bathtub.

I'm not following …

not hidden meaning, I always tease you for reading in the tub, that one belongs in the tub!

Nothing will displace my tub romance novels!

[Kory]

So I'm reading Mad Men Carousel, an episode-by-episode analysis.

This is the one time I insist you DO read it in the bathtub.

I'm not following …

not hidden meaning, I always tease you for reading in the tub, that one belongs in the tub!

Nothing will displace my tub romance novels!

It will displace water if it falls in...

[Dr. Medulla]

This is the one time I insist you DO read it in the bathtub.

I'm not following …

not hidden meaning, I always tease you for reading in the tub, that one belongs in the tub!

Nothing will displace my tub romance novels!

It will displace water if it falls in...

They defy all physical laws, heathen!

[Dr. Medulla]

[revbob]

That was good. Ive only ever channel surfed thru Mad Men but what's his name is a great comic actor. Dont think Ive seen him im a serious role.

[Dr. Medulla]

That was good. Ive only ever channel surfed thru Mad Men but what's his name is a great comic actor. Dont think Ive seen him im a serious role.

I was first exposed to Jon Hamm on Mad Men so I was blown away to find out that he also possessed comedic acting chops.