Mad Men Season 3 - Page 3

Ha, totally missed the Wedding Invitation reveal.
If John Slattery doesn't win an Emmy i'm going to murder someone's family. He's just gold in every single scene.

Loved to see more of Don and Peggy together working, their relationship has always been the thrust of the show for me.

Good as this show is, I'm always anticipating the next Don/Peggy or Don/Roger scene.

And I found the scene with Don daydreaming about the teacher oddly touching. I usually react badly to married men ogling other women like that but there was something about his behavior that I found weird. Anyway I don't think his marriage will survive the season.

I like how he's obviously overcompensating in his marriage. He's going above and beyond to be a "good husband." But he still insists on fucking around. The man wants it all and it leaves him with nothing. Because he's living the image he's created for himself but he wants so much more. That's why that last image is so striking. He wants to be free, young and feel things like those kids, be care free and wild. But he chose this life to represent himself. And so, in a sense, he's trapped. He's a very tragic character.

And he probably functions as a heightened version of his generation in this sense, too. Teen and young adult cultures weren't the distinct categories that they became in the latter half of the century. He spent his young adult years, like so many of his peers did, in the military. He was expected to be a responsible grownup from a young age (compounded by the problem that his childhood was fairly awful). So even in reinventing himself, he chose the route of a responsible and ambitious adult, but gets to witness the burgeoning counter-culture and pop culture-oriented mentalities - options that weren't really available for him when he was the right age. By the end of the 60s, the Don Drapers are relics.

At the same time, since the guy's never let himself be irresponsible in his visible life, all of his irresponsibility comes out in his affairs, his occasional mysterious disappearances to tend to his former life, etc. In this way, Don Draper manufactures his own trouble to a large extent and has nothing on Betty in the tragedy department. Although one suspects that Betty, like Peggy*, will see some slight improvements in her life by the end of the decade, being more independent, etc.

* And you have to wonder about Joan. She seems more resigned to her role in society - she displayed some creative talent last season, but couldn't bring herself to capitalize on it in the way that Peggy has. And, in some ways, Joan's the type of beautiful, but subordinate woman who benefited (if in meager ways) from the old boys' club. So you have to wonder if she'll follow Peggy's lead, or if she'll stick by the old system that rewards her, but doesn't really allow for ambitious women.

Well, next week's preview showed Joan standing up a bit for herself. I hope she follows through.

She's stood up for herself all along. One of the things I like about her character is that she almost never appears weak or submissive. She's a force to be reckoned with in the office and she speaks her mind in the bedroom. She runs that fucking office...where would they be without her? She's not the type of woman who would ever allow her husband to rape her in her boss's office, which is why the ending of last season was so infuriating. She, like Don, like Peggy, needs, craves, that image. In her case, similar to Don, it seems that its the image of stability, family...all this talk of her getting older from last season, needing to settle down. We all know how ridiculous that is, but it was a huge status symbol. She'd rather set aside her creative chops to please her dickwad of a husband.

In contrast, Peggy is Don and Joan all mixed up. She wants to be Don at work and Joan in appearance. As pleased with herself as she is (and should be) at work, she still craves to be viewed as "sexy" and she finds it infuriating when men seem to understand what that means more than her. She is a woman, after all. Joan has it naturally. Why can't she?

All this talk about tragic characters, and nobody mentions the most tragic of them all: Don and Betty's kids. As much of a charade their marriage is, those kids are going to be the ones that really pay for it.

Sally Draper will be lucky to not get shot at Kent State.

She's stood up for herself, but it's within a certain context. She's all about making it on the terms that were allowed for women at the time. Joan is strong, in her way, but she plays very much by traditional rules, which is exactly why her decision to settle down with rapist doctor guy is disappointing, but also completely in character.

I think that's an oversimplificaton. Peggy certainly has ambition and the ability to put the past behind her like Don, but I don't think she has all that much in common with Joan, even in terms of aspirations. Everyone wants to be attractive, so I don't find Peggy's desire to be so all that tied to Joan. Joan's an obvious resource for her when trying out pickup lines and such, but I don't think it goes much further than that. Peggy wants to be appreciated on her own terms, which is exactly why she finds the "Bye Bye Birdie" ad campaign so infuriating. Joan (at least on the surface) is a man's version of the ideal woman. Peggy rejects the idea that woman only have value on the basis of what men want.

Well, generationally speaking, we know what happens to them. That generation figured out that divorce sometimes just makes more sense.

She rejects it in theory, but she doesn't have the confidence to be herself in front of men outside of the office. And after that lecture from Don ("men want her, woman want to be her") we see her indulging in this very kind of behavior. Taking a sloppy bite of that burger, using Joans pick-up lines, singing Bye Bye Birdie in front of the mirror...these are all bigger aspects of her character than I think you're crediting. She allows that dude to think she's a typist so she can get laid (sorta). Joan would talk down to him about talking down to her and eat the guy alive, probably never giving him the time of day.

I guess I think Joan and Peggy are alike in that they both have something the other wants but can't have. They're two sides of a coin and they both wanna flip over and be heads or tails to see how it feels; at least for a little while.

Yeah, speaking of this...I hope the show goes easy with the historical aspects. The Cuban Crisis was fine last year because it's so anti-climactic, which works for where the show was going. If every season is punctuated by important historical events, I'm going to get a little annoyed. I can already see Kennedy's assassination being the reason that Sterling gets re-invited to his daughters wedding or bringing their family back together or some silly bullshit. I pray the show doesn't go there.

Don't sell some good writing short. Don tells her that AFTER she sings "Bye Bye Birdie" in the mirror.

I think that stuff's all means to an end with Peggy, though. Being herself at that bar wouldn't get her laid, because being herself means being threatening to most guys most of the time. I like how this blog entry characterizes it:

And you're right that Joan might treat that guy differently, but that's a direct result of how she makes the existing paradigm work for her. She's almost always the best-looking woman in the room, which brings with it a ton of sexual confidence. Peggy couldn't do that - the guy would just walk away. So where Joan is free to act naturally, Peggy has to put up a front - but I don't think that indicates she actually wants to be like Joan or Ann Margret.

I don't know, I guess I'm not seeing the Peggy/Joan dichotomy as much as the Peggy/Don similarity. Peggy, Joan, and Betty are all somewhat representative of particular feminine roles of the time, but the parallels and contrasts are indirect and complex.

Are you sure about that? I thought the mirror scene came after their conversation.

Pretty sure. The imdb synopsis, while obviously not gospel, is a painfully literal description of the episode, and the best I can offer you this second:

Whoops - you're absolutely right. I forgot that Don wasn't present at the first meeting.

I dug it at the time because, coming after the mirror scene, it was as if Don saw right into her. Which he did.

Yeah, I was convinced that it came before...so much so that I re-watched the scene on DVR. Whoops! It does work much better this way, too. Good catch, Phil.

What to make of Don telling Peggy she's not an artist and to leave some tools in her toolbox? Followed immediately by Sterling saying, "You're the only one around here who doesn't have that stupid look on her face."

It's right after all THIS that Peggy goes to the bar. Very interesting...

Definitely. I have a feeling we're going to be referring back to that "limit your exposure" line a lot this season, but it's so appropriate here. Where an artist might be inclined to express truths, the nature of their business is in being selective and emphasizing only certain aspects of reality. Flaunting her intelligence in some scenarios (especially at that point) doesn't necessarily serve Peggy's interests. After Sterling says that, she realizes that it's a very noticeable tool and she should probably hide it, if not put it back in the toolbox, if she intends to attract men with her other traits.

This episode was downright fucking bizarre. Roger in blackface, Peggy stoned, Joan playing the accordion; I need to rewatch this. It's certainly one of the more memorable episodes, for sure.

So Connie...that was Conrad Hilton, right?

ETA: Can't imagine they named him "Connie" and said he was from San Antonio, New Mexico just for the hell of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Hilton

Nice, on top of making Peggy high they they change her hair and put her in the hottest Peggy outfit yet. I mean I have always had the hots for Olson but after this episode damn.

And Sally Draper is now officially my favourite character, the Rise and Fall reading was a bit too on nose but damn did that girl sell it! and the bloody masked crying at the dinner table somebody get this girl an Emmy!!

Nice to see Pete and Trudy actually doing some well together.

Man, the scenes between Grandpa and Sally make me really, really nervous. I thought for sure he was going to smack the shit out of her when she returned the money.

Peggy's stoned speech to her secretary was awesome. Moss needs that Emmy.

I loved this episode...one of the best that I can remember. It felt like a season one episode. The way they play with idea of social performances worked beautifully here, without going overboard or forcing it down our throats. Roger's black face, Paul's singing, Pete and his wife dancing, Joan's accordion playing...there's an element of sadness about all of it, but on the surface they're performing the best they can.

Couple that with the most suspenseful Mad Men scene I've ever seen, acted, written, directed and edited beautifully. When Sally brings grandpa the five dollar bill back I could barely stand to watch. Jesus.

Best last shot in the long time too. There's a strong contrast between the last shot with Roger and Jane and Don and Betty. But I like that they're alone surrounded by the woods. It could be that Don is forcing it...but for some reason, for once, it felt sincere. Maybe it was how far away they were from us, how private and intimate it felt. But I actually felt and inkling of hope for them in that moment...which is a pretty amazing considering where their marriage is.

Great great episode. The cut from Peggy smoking dope to Roger in blackface was one of the best I remember in this show.

I actually thought that was all just an act, like they rehearsed the shit out of that to impress Roger and all the big boys. I never read Happiness on Pete's face. Only intention to impress.

Roger in Blackface was kinda great.

I have a feeling something is wrong with the Draper baby. It could be all the smoking and drinking just making me think that something is wrong.

Maybe. Seemed spontaneous enough to me. I'm giving Pete the benefit of the doubt on this one.

I still can't get over how much Sally looks like Firestarter-era Drew Barrymore. Grandpa better watch his step.

He was staring at Roger the whole time he was dancing. It was absolutely just an act.

This season is off to an incredible start, the writing and acting have been spot-on phenomenal.

Yeah, he was either staring at Roger (probable) or Jane (why?). So the implication is that he was trying to impress one of them. What makes the whole dance so sad is the "baby talk" the rest of the characters have before that scene...and the subtle facial expressions Pete and Trudy exchanged when the subject came up.

Most TV series would do that, so I think MadMen writers won't.

They've managed to skip all those cliche plots. Each time I thought they'd pull some lame plot device, they didn't.

I liked that out of all of the guests, Don and Pete were unified by their dislike of Roger's blackface, although possibly not for progressive reasons.

I don't think the dance was any more of an act than anything else that was happening at that party. Pete's old money, and Trudy's nouveau riche, so they would've both had extensive dance lessons growing up, so the dance itself was spontaneous. It's saying 'Look how happily married we are! Despite our lack of children because my wife is barren and I refuse to let her adopt,' but it's not a conscious subterfuge on either of their parts. Roger's line about being 'conspicuously happy' is pretty much the key to the whole party. And makes the final shot of Don and Betty kissing passionately in the shadows all the more poignant.

There's also a recurring theme of 'marrying for love' in this episode. The line about Rockefeller's marriage, the final line in Joan's song is 'un mariage d'amour (something something),' and when you think about it: Don and Betty are actually the only couple in the show that married for love (maybe the Cranes, but we really don't know very much about their relationship beyond Harry's wife apparently forgave him for sleeping with Hildy in S1, and they seem to be working out okay-ish). Roger and Mona were a monied person's marriage. Roger and Jane is an entirely lust driven mid-life crisis marriage for Roger. Pete and Trudy: two young rich people. Just like Roger and Mona probably were. Joan and her fiancée are because marrying a doctor is what Joan thinks she's supposed to do (and I can't wait to see what happens when Joan's fiancée gets fired for killing a guy on the table. Maybe for killing ANOTHER guy on the table). Sal and his beard. 'Nuff said.

I'd love if this season was all about whether love in marriage is enough to sustain it. And yeah, I do think Don still loves Betty. His philandering isn't because he doesn't love Betty, or is bored with her, it's his clumsy and misguided attempts to grab as much life for himself as he can.

^^^Concur.

Fantastic point. The episode really was about this idea, and I had not thought of it before. I suppose you could also throw Peggy into the list and her almost stage-like introduction of "My name is Peggy Olson and I want to smoke marijuana."

Great balance of small moments for so many of the show's characters. No one felt particularly left out. And the idea of everyone putting on their own personal minstrel show for the people in their lives must have been a tough one to leave any character out of.

Pete and Trudy's dance felt completely un-self conscious to me, but I'll have to watch again to see if he's looking around for approval. It didn't seem to play like that.

I never really feel like Don is forcing anything with Betty. He's a wreck and he doesn't treat her correctly, but he genuinely loves her.

I love Sally and Gene's relationship. Poor Bobby's still just a mouth to feed.

Moment That Will Never Be Referenced Again(?): Don running into Conrad Hilton.

Moment That Will Have Ramifications Later: Don telling Roger everyone thinks he's foolish. And it'd be twisted and lovely if Joan leaves Dr. Husband not because he raped (rapes?) her, but because he's a crappy doctor.

Finally had to time to watch this latest episode. Fantastic - loving this season so far. Should be very interesting to see the rift between Roger and Don play out.

I love Peggy. "My name's Peggy Olson - and I want to smoke some marijuana." Plus, when her bar pick-up didn't have a condom last week: "There's other things we could do." Go Peggy!

Very happy to see more of Joan this episode - I never wanted to be an accordion so badly in my life.

I agree with you about Don not forcing anything with Betty. Betty on the other hand is one of those wives who puts on a good public face but behind closed doors is a petulent, judmental, spoiled, aloof, woman with the maturity of a teenage girl. Those kinds of relationships were commonplace back then and when you got fed up with your old lady, you just cheated on her. Thats why Don's cheating doesn't make him come off as a scumbag. You see the women he is attracted to are all strong willed independent wormen who take life into thier own hands and only need Don for a good lay.

It's a realistic look into the lives of these people in the 50's and early 60's that have been romanticized over the past 20 years as "The Greatest Generation" but they have the same faults and vices we do now, only back then technology didnt connect us all and people had some shame. My 80 year old grandmother plowed the DVD's this summer and is watching the show and she talks about how perfect the Draper marriage is portrayed. Wives like that were always cheated on and it was a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

That's kind of an interesting point, but I don't know if the rest is at all how I see it.

Yeah, my take on Betty is nowhere near that negative. She's sheltered, certainly - one of the more disturbing, but not at all unrealistic, moments of the last episode is that she actually seemed to enjoy Roger's blackface performance, while the more worldly Don obviously found it offensive (in retrospect, it's harder to say whether it was because of the blackface or the spectacle that Roger is making of himself, though).

But Betty's demonstrated strength that goes beyond mere stubbornness or selfishness. She kicked Don to the curb once, and I'm not so sure she would have taken him back if not for the fact that she's carrying another one of his children and the early 1960s were not a particularly good time to be a single mother, much less a mother of three with one of them a newborn.

I think that Birdie is a horrible person. I'm not holding Don up as a saint at all but she comes off to me as a spoiled girl that always gets her way and is a snob of the biggest kind. It's like she thinks she's entitled to anything she wants and is shocked when she doesn't get her way (like with her father). I loved how her brother pointed out (to Don I think?) that Betty always fought with their father and it seems to me that their relationship wasn't as good as she puts on. I'm just rambling here a little and not making my point as well as I should but I just don't like Betty as a person. The actress plays her perfectly and the character itself is good but ugh..

Edited to add: I also LOVED how her equestrian partner called her a horrible woman and called her out on that crap!

Her equestrian partner who cheated on her husband?

There's no one admirable on the show.

Yes but it was Betty that setup their whole little lunch thing with no intention of ever going herself.

No doubt he loves her. But the ending of the previous episode shows Don yearning to be with another woman. His relationship with Betty is anything but honest and so by default there are levels of insincerity to it. I think he almost views his marriage like a job, which is why I meant that he forced it. It was good to see them have a nice moment, particularly in private. Even the camera was at a distance. That speaks more about their love then anything either of them could say to each other.

Hm. Or the last shot was Don's own "minstrel show" moment. I hope not, though.

I disagree with your reading of that moment. It was a call back to his description of Ann Margret in the Bye Bye Birdie opening. He's not yearning for the teacher, he's yearning for innocence, to be able to take off his shoes and dance around in the grass like a child. He's stroking the grass to surreptitiously feel grass on his skin, not as some 'the grass is touching her and I'm touching the grass, so I'm touching her' transference fantasy.

Wow. Powerful episode tonight. Probably my favorite so far of the entire series.

The look on the face of Sal's wife was amazing. The entire time he was describing the ad, all I kept thinking was... "WOW, how does anyone not see this guy as a flaming homosexual?!" then sure enough the look on his wife's face.. she knew. Right there it hit her like a ton of bricks.

The whole scene with him and betts, where he was covering his 'arrangements' was amazing. Apparently Eugene Hofstadt #2 didn't like Don! I was taken aback when he referred to him as a 'joker'. I almost think the guy knew about Don's real past the way he was goading Don on about war ... but that would go against what was revealed last season.

I was also dreading each and every scene with Grandpa. The suspense level kept notching up each time he was alone with the kids. I thought for sure he was going to bite it in the beginning while Sally was driving and even more so when they were speeding up. Each and every little interaction was just edging closer and closer to that point where I felt real concern for Sally and her brother.

This show just is amazing at how it can keep you drawn in and dying to know more and see more. I don't know, I'm still kinda geeking out about everything that happened in this episode. As always, Roger has the best lines.

I also enjoyed the little trivia that the Drapers live in Ossining, New York.

So can we safely say now best ensemble cast in TV history?

I see the youngest win for an Emmy is 14. Well the girl below definitely deserves a nod.



And just when I thought the show could not do any better with Sal, we get tonight's scene, never have I felt so much empathy for two characters.

Will have to let this one sink in, and wait for the better writers to way in.

Gee, hard to see why Peggy wants to move the fuck away from her mother, isn't it?

Poor, poor Kitty. That actress was fantastic in that scene as she sort of just saw her entire world crumble for her.

Carla Gallo as your roommate? That won't end well.

I had just spent most of yesterday tearing my way through the second season of Californication where she plays a pornstar, needless to say it was confusing and a little jarring to see her show up as Peggy's roommate.

Well, that scene in the very end explained Betty quite a lot.