Mad Men (TV Series) Love Among the Ruins (2009) User Reviews

Strangely Under-Rated

[borowiecsminus · 8/10 · 8 August 2016]

According to the lovely users of IMDb, this is the sixth-worst episode of the show. Well, I'll agree it isn't one of the best, but just up to this point, it's not in the ten worst, and that rank can only get more favorable.

I'll grant people that this episode isn't particularly fast-paced, nor is it particularly exciting. But it's early season Mad Men. If every episode was a crisis, it would feel like the Season Endgames were nothing different. Openings, like in chess, need to take their sweet time to show the viewer how good things are while whispering "just you wait."

The high point of this episode is the writing, done by Cathryn Humpus and Matthew Weiner. The low point is the directing.

That Date...

[LongMane · 7/10 · 24 August 2009]

Margaret Sterling (Elizabeth Rice) is in for a shock. As Roger Sterling (John Slattery) examines his daughter's wedding invitation, he exclaims "November Twenty-third." We get a split-second closeup of of the silvery parchment. The invitation bears the date of November 23., 1963. That places her wedding on the Saturday that John F. Kennedy will be assassinated.

I cannot help but wonder if the series will try to do a treatment of the assassination over an episode or two. It seems so outside the scope of the rest of the show. It seems to prefer interpersonal and stylistic themes over the historical. The series did, however, spend an episode on the night of the Kennedy versus Nixon election.

Factual Error (Goofs)

[douglasrubin · 9/10 · 24 June 2019]

Broadway Limited (or a dozen other trains over the same, current NorthEast Corridor) out of Penn Station would be the appropriate way for William & Judy Hofstadt to get back to the Philadelphia area. NY Central ran the 20th Century Limited (and other trains) out of Grand Central Terminal to Albany, Buffalo and points-west.

Disappointments

[vivianla · 10 June 2020]

Sterling's ex and his daughter comes into his office. They argue over wedding plans. Roger Sterling wants to invite Jane to Margaret's wedding but Margaret doesn't want her there. She gets angry and says do you really want me to say it because I know you think I am too ashamed to bring it up. She is ashamed her stepmom could be her sister.

Betty's father gets more ill and Betty decides to invite her brother William's family and her father to her house. Betty suspects her brother wants to put their father in a home so he could take the house.

Don gives a stern talk to William. I like how Don is finally doing something right - he offers to take their father into his home and William has to contribute by giving money.

Peggy asks Don if he would like to talk about Pampers and they go to his office next door to Peggy's. I love this scene and how Peggy takes charge and shows that a woman can do the job.