Mad Men: The Little Death
Mad Men had sex on the brain this week. Everyone was fucking and/or coming very close to fucking. It was like an episode of the Real World/Road Rules Gauntlet Hell Inferno From Hell Challenge: Cabo Nights, or whatever. Minus the flag relay-races. You had Betty pushing her flirtation with Henry Francis 2 Tha LIMIT. Careful, Betty! Then there is Don Draper and the teacher, which is basically a thing that you saw coming so long ago, from all of the miles away, but here it is, and you kind of wished it wouldn't happen because Don has a new baby, you guys, and ultimately Betty did preserve her moral highground by turning Henry Francis down (tawdry), and Don is just plain getting harder and harder to like. So much yelling from him, and gloomy faces. He's mean! But he is our hero. It's the Tony Soprano effect, basically. Except that instead of coming to like and identify with a philandering egotist monster who spends his days murdering members of the New York crew, we have come to like a philandering egotist monster who murders AD CAMPAIGNS. And then, of course, there is the human tragedy that is Sal. Oh, Sal! You are so confused and angry and scared and sad. "You people," says Don Draper. "I think you know that this is the way it has to be," says Don Draper. Oof, says Gabe.
Not to mention the Connie plot-line. Pretty incredible stuff. "What do you want from me? Love? Your work is good." YIIIIIKES, DAD. The scene in which Connie became a surrogate father figure to Don was touching and powerful, and just as quickly that father turned his back. Sad emoticon? Saddest emoticon. I'm not going to go into it, but let's just say that dads can be the worst. Am I right? (If you don't think I'm right, I don't want to hear about it, happy child!)
Also: eracism.
Just an epic episode, basically. Another epic episode. Slow down, Mad Men! You are almost too epic for your own good. Just kidding: keep going. This is great.
Posted by Gabe at 12:00 PM in Love-Watching
Tags: Christina Hendricks | Elisabeth Moss | January Jones | John Slattery | Jon Hamm | Mad Men
Way too much of Paris Hilton's grandaddy in this ep, not enough Joan.
Score = 2
i'm having a debate with my friend about joan vs. betty. joan is a more likeable character but betty is hotter by 10x. i'd rather watch jj play betty anyday. it's pretty hard to be that ridic hot and still have people hate your character. btw, check out the interview with janjones in GQ.
Score = -1
Mad Men:
Score = 3
It seems I have misjudged the audience overlap between Mike Allred and Matthew Weiner. This pretty much kills the commercial viability of my dream project, a Don Draper/Atomics crossover event.
Score = 6
Shit, Mike Allred is the best. Btw Godsauce I never fail to assume your avatar is of two nightcrawlers fucking. Sorry, not comicsgum
Score = 0
I asked for fresh towels, but they gave me a hamburger.
Score = 25
I just watched my first few episodes of Mad Men over the weekend and it's great and everything, but there's got to be an edited, all-Don-Draper-having-all-the-sex montage version online somewhere, right? PLEASE TELL ME THERE IS AND WHERE I CAN GET IT. Thanks, monsters!
Score = 4
"You can throw your lock box at me any time."
-Henry Francis
Score = 5
This was such a super sad episode all around. Betty didn't have sex. Sal had gay sex forced upon him by his boss and supposed friend/confidant (or secret keeper). Don hogged all the normal good sex for himself and his YOUNG DAUGHTER'S TEACHER. Gross, Don. Then he was spurned by his daddy/Conrad Hilton? And Don yelled at Peggy some more? And Joan is still gone and married to a rapist? Mad Men, give me some happies here. Happies like this:
Score = 12
So what is Sal like hanging around the park, soliciting gay sex and pretending to be at work now? I don't like where this is heading. Don, you big meanie! And Roger Sterling has become the worst. I know he was never a great guy (totally chauvinistic and racist), but at least he was funny, now he's just an asshole.
Score = 12
Sal is auditioning for Angels in America. :(
Score = 14
Roger Sterling ordered a subscription to Goop.
Score = 7
Also, all the Civil Rights stuff gives me an excuse to post this:
http://lookatthisfuckingteabagger.com/post/199756404/i-dont-know-where-this-came-from-but-couldnt
I would embed the image but I am html-stupid
Score = 1
Don IS getting hard to like. The Sal thing broke my heart. He's always been my favorite Mad Men character, and now I see him having a Rickety Cricket career path -- when we see him again, if we see him again, he isn't going to be better for his firing. Hopefully he isn't rummaging through trash cans....
I mean, I know people hated Duck, but I actually always considered Duck and Don to be roughly morally equivalent. What did Peggy say to Peter about "how it's always Don against the world"? Well, my faith is wavering in Don too.
And today I am mourning for Sal, whom I had a tremendous mancrush on. But no homo? Sorry, poor taste...
Score = 8
"Rickety Cricket career path" = Lots Of Love
Score = 7
Don Draper is one of those guys who should see the irony in firing an employee for being sexually harassed by another man, while he later goes out and sexually harasses his daughter's teacher. I'm sad he doesn't. Maybe it's time for another hippie beat down.
Also, I enjoyed the overlapping of the current day's gay rights issue with the civil rights issue going on then. Betty's comment that "Maybe it's just not the right time," combined with Carla's reaction, and our knowledge of what comes next, was a stunning and motivational moment.
Score = 15
Daddy issues Gabe?
Score = -3
I was wondering the same thing! :-(
It's okay, we love you, Gabe.
Score = 1
I know that Mad Men is doing the same thing to its audience that the Sopranos did - i.e. exposing the moral relativity of its fan base - we love and laud Don despite his infidelities and are shocked and appalled with Betty, but can I just say that Betty Drapper is the worst? How come we never talk about the fact that she might be a HORRIBLE mother?
Score = 6
"might?"
Score = 6
People who complain about Betty are the worst. Don is basically an absentee father. Sure, the few times he is around, he can be nice, but it doesn't make up for the times when he runs off to California or with whoever his flavor of the week is. Betty is a product of her upbringing, but she has been trying a lot harder this season.
Score = 4
I'm sorry, I didn't know that having an opinion on a character in a show that we all love would relegate me to the world of Jaime Foxx and the Juggalos. And I also qualified my point by stating how I was aware of the fact that the show is playing on the audience's moral relativity regarding Don and Betty.
All that being said, Yes, Betty is trying much harder this season... to get banged.
Score = -1
side note: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20311577,00.html
*CUE COLLECTIVE SIGH*
Score = 4
First, that's bigoted I guess? Nice job stringing together a bunch of truisms to not make any sort of point. I want to vomit on you too, but not even because you're a bigot. At least be an honest bigot, instead of just grabbing a bunch of other bigot's ideas and making a fun thought collage that doesn't make any sense. Nice job, you fail Bigot 101. Maybe you can be the Republican VP candidate in 2012, you are so off-topic. Have fun at the debates.
Score = 1
Sorry, response to Randroid (Anynrandian or whoever). And I lean libertarian, so I'm not hating on that.
Score = 1
It took watching that episode again to realize how gross what Don did to Sal really was. Roger was just being reactionary. But Don, Don fired him knowing the whole story.
"He's a bully." choked me up a little.
Score = 7
My favorite moments:
Pete coughing up a lung while trying Luck Strikes IN FRONT OF THE CLIENT. I didn't notice he didn't smoke until this episode.
"I know what I know," from Lee Garner. 1963 gaydar was acute, apparently. Except for in Sal, who totally can't admit to himself he's gay. Or something.
Betty throwing the lockbox. I love her violent outbursts! Shooting the pigeons, slapping her divorced neighbor in the market, smashing the dining chair with the bum leg.
You won't like Betty when she's angry..... sorry.
And Sal's going to end up at Grey with Duck, I'm sure...
Score = 12
Yeah, it's funny. I've been actively avoiding this show for 3 years because I knew it was good and didn't want to jump into it midway. I bought season 1 last weekend and watched it over a couple of days, then decided to watch this week's episode, spoilers be damned. But nothing's changed. Don's still screwing everyone. Roger's still a dickhead. Betty's still crazy (for good reasons). Sal is still in denial. What happened in season 2? Maybe Bert Cooper started wearing shoes.
Score = 2
I started crying during the scene with Don and Sal. It's scenes like that when you realize how little we really know about Don; the way he treated Sal was shocking and monstrous. I didn't realize how much I love Sal's character until he was looking at Don with tears in his eyes saying that he didn't do anything wrong. Unfair.
I really loved MLK and civil rights hanging over this episode, in the background of so many scenes. I adore the way that this show slowly works the rest of the world into these people's personal lives.
Also: a small thing, but I cracked up at little Don moments several times: "Goodbye!" and "Hello?" at Hilton's dial tone. And when Harry and Sal came to his office and he was like, "I can hear and see you. Come in." So funny. Nobody delivers lines like Jon Hamm.
Score = 3
I just can't jump on the "Don is a monster to Sal" boat here. In fact, Don was EXCEEDINGLY COOL about Sal being gay and not caring and not outing him. But what Don DOES care about is his job and his money, and when a $25 million dollar client is unhappy (in 1960-whatever dollars!), he's gotta do what he's gotta do. Not to say that Sal should have humped one for the team, but when all was said and done and it got to Don, he did what anyone would do: protect his own ass. If it had been any other character pissing off a client like that, Don would have reacted the exact same way. Sorry, but you're not worth $25 mil a year, peace out.
Score = 0
Oh my God, I haven't watched this episode yet, and now I'm not sure I want to. Why do I put myself through this show?
Score = 0
Don is so awesome. He just fucks whoever he wants. He fucks Sal over. He fucks the teacher. And lastly, he fucked around with Conrad drinking that prohibition liquor. Is there anyone Don can't fuck?
Score = 2
One day not so long ago, Gabe sent an email to Liz and it read "I think you know this is the way it has to be"
Score = -3
People are being excessively critical of Don's homophobia. The year is 1963, but some people feel obligatedwant to hold him to today's standards. Calling a homosexaul "you people" is pretty tame when you think about in a historical context. Don tried to preserve Sal's secret. Unfortunately, the tobacco exec f*cked Sal over, but the bottom line is Lucky Strike is more important to Sterling Cooper than Sal could ever possibly be.
Score = 0
I'm liking the show less and less as the season goes on. One thing I loved about the 1st and especially 2nd season was that you had genuine sympathy for ALL the characters, you understood their weaknesses and rooted for them anyway. You even loved Pete in a weird way, and felt all the more devastated when Peggy told him about their child. No such luck this season, as suddenly Don has become a caricature of an Angry Prick. Simply put, there are too many Villains (Don, Rodger), and Victims (Sal, and pretty much all the women on this show), and the divide between them is becoming both predictable and obvious. Also, before we compare Don Draper to Tony Soprano, I need to point out that Tony Soprano was a mob boss, and killed people on a regular basis, so we couldn't have been too surprised when he became hard to like. Don, on the other hand, isn't a sociopath beneath his bad behavior, so I think we're allowed to be frustrated when he becomes increasingly horrible. Also, MORE JOAN PLEASE.
Score = 2
i think your assessment is pretty accurate, but what betty(birdie) and duck(i guess if you have an avian/animal nickname, you are dangerous to non-humans) did, respectively, to pigeons and a dog were unforgivable, therefore they are my outstanding demons to watch in the show.
i caught up with the sopranos on a&e and followed it through to the end like a homework assignment--it was work because those characters were even less relatable/likable than all the bettys and ducks you could send my way.
Score = 1
oh jeez, can you really be serious ? maybe you really are the bleeding heart liberal moralist (not a political slight; not a conservative) that you seem to be, but chances are that if you watched the sopranos, and kept watching it, chances are that you empathized with tony and giggled at everything paulie walnuts said, and found the other (admittedly less likable) characters to be too dimwitted, infantile and lost to really be repulsive.
Score = 0
oops @ teh redundancy
Score = 0
Very true. The great tragedy of this show for me is Carla and Joan. They are clearly the most capable people on the show that have the least amount of responsibility. It really breaks my heart to watch them. The episode last season where Joan was given a part in the TV department only to have it snatched away from her was devestating. I concur, MORE JOAN!
Score = 1
More like Don dRAPER, am I right? Or at least, Don coerce the drunk teacher-ER!
Score = 0
Betty Draper, how do you expect someone to carry on a non-tawdry affair?
Score = 0