Watching last night’s episode of Mad Men, I was once again struck — powerfully so — with the belief that January Jones had to have done something to spark Matt Weiner’s ire for him to turn Betty Draper into arguably the most unlikeable character in the history of television. I have three guesses.
1. She left an upper-decker for him when he once hosted a party at his house.
2. She has Weiner’s son, aka Creepy Glenn, convinced that Obama is a communist/Muslim who plans to invade “real America” with an army of gays in his second term.
3. She banged Jeremy Piven and Bobby Flay.
All of the above?
With that said, here are a few notes I made during last night’s Mad Men about characters, scenes, etc. I found interesting for one reason or another.
- Opening the show with Betty eating alone, measuring her food was just awesome. And OMFG Betty and the whipped cream! I can’t remember losing my sh*t as hard as I did when this happened. Like, I laughed so hard it left me gasping for air and eventually coughing. And, of course, my first thought was, “I can’t wait to see the GIF.”
- Also, nice of Matt Weiner to feature the world’s worst mother on an episode airing on Mother’s Day.
- “I respect anything that rewards you for silence.” — Roger Sterling, in the first of many awesome lines he had again last night.
- This is hardly a revelation, but Megan > Betty, all day, every day, in every way. Has there ever been a second wife upgrade better than Megan?
- “How Jewish are they…’Fiddler on the Roof’, audience or cast?” — Roger Sterling giving us all the universal standard tool for Jewy-ness measurement going forward, forever and ever.
-Speaking of Roger, how is he not broke yet? He’s constantly having to dole out cash out of his own pocket to keep up with Pete, and in this episode he bought a new apartment for his soon-to-be ex, while also supporting two other ex-wives. Dude’s gonna be living on Bert Cooper’s drool-stained sofa by the time the series is done.
- “They make wine for Jews…but now they’re making one for normal people, people like me.” — Guess who.
- Betty telling Sally about Anna has to be the bitchiest thing she’s even done on the show. I was actually livid myself when she did that. WHAT A SUPERC*NT! The only way she can be happy is by bringing misery to others. Just like Megan insinuated, she’s a poison. I want her to get hit by a damn ice cream truck. That’s where the Fat Betty storyline is leading, right? Please tell me that Weiner is building toward an ironic death for her. Oh God how I hate Betty Draper. And how sad was it when it appeared for a moment that little Sally might have been turning into Betty? Thankfully, Don and Megan handled the situation better than I would have and then cleverly stuck a knife in Betty’s dark, fat heart with the note on the back of Bobby’s drawing.
- Also, Betty’s reaction to Bobby’s drawing of a whale with three arrows in it made me think that she thought it was a metaphor pertaining to her fat ass having three kids or something.
- What’s this little competitive dance suddenly going on between Don and Ginsberg? Has that been bubbling beneath the surface for a while and I just didn’t notice it? I know that Don never really liked him — their personalities couldn’t be more polar opposites — but this seems to have come out of nowhere. Regardless, I like it — I miss Don and Pete trying to stab each other in the back constantly. Oh, and this is how you rip an adversary’s heart out…
- There was no way Roger was gonna get his ex a new apartment and then let some other swinging dick come in and christen the place. I respect that.
- That toxic NYC death smog Megan referenced? Really happened. Killed 169 people, in fact.
- And here’s the New York Times Magazine article on advertising Pete had a raging boner for, only to have his side-boob-y daydreams crushed in the end, further enhancing the case for a future Pete suicide in the process.
- “When a man hates another man very, very much, sometimes he wants to know that something is his, even if in the end he has to give it up.” — Roger Sterling
- WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO LANE PRYCE?
- All hail Sally Draper, trolling before trolling was cool…
Thoughts? Anything I missed? Please empty your brains in the comments.
(GIFs via Chet Manley)
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Lane took a break to try and make the two universes collide. He should be back soon, though, spoilerz.
I am in NO WAY defending Betty but she told Sally about Anna after she saw the note on the back of Bobby’s drawing. I used to feel sorry for her — stuck out in the ‘burbs with three kids, a cheating husband an no identity of her own — but that was really childish of her to tell Sally about Anna. It’s amazing that the most emotionally mature adult those kids have is their 25-year old stepmother.
Also, I cannot wait for that whiny little pissant Pete to summon up enough courage eat the end of the shotgun he got by returning that wedding present in Season 1. Then maybe Trudie can find herself a real man.
Somebody’s got to defend her, because the writers clearly make her out to be a horrible person. She was raised to be a traditional perfect trophy wife, but her parents made sure she was traveled and educated at a great school. Don is the love of her life, just looking for a trophy wife and she gets stuck out in the burbs to pump out kids and make Don look like the man who has it all, when Betty would really love to live in Manhattan and have an urban lifestyle. It eats away at her and she barely saw Don and Don barely saw his kids, so of course he would seem like the better parent. Now she gets to see Megan living the life she wanted, with Don treating her the way she always wanted to be treated – PLUS – Megan gets to be friends with her kids and they like her, because Betty is the one who has them most of the time and has to raise them during the good and bad times and pretty much be the only parent when she was with Don (let’s not talk about Carla, that was a tragedy). Life ain’t fair, but for Betty it pretty much sucked. To have all that money and no one to really love you (and pork all of Manhattan behind your back) is not very great. I’m surprised they never had an episode where she mysteriously contracted some venereal disease and was baffled as to how she acquired it.
Thank you Scoobs, that’s basically what I’ve been thinking for a long time. Betty was a model and speaks Italian. But she got stuck at home with the kids and dutifully soldiered on. When she began to experience problems, she went to a shrink who basically called her a child and secretly contacted her husband about it. And, despite being hot, Don cheated on her with all manner of women AND lied about who he really was. Betty got to experience every negative angle of Don Draper in full, Don used Betty as his training doll for being a better husband and human being. Megan doesn’t have to deal with all that crap because Don (and this can’t last) made every mistake with Betty and learned from her.
So yeah, I think it’s a bit unfair to hate on Betty all day. She’s like a rental car that got absolutely trashed by a teenager who was learning to drive and then went out and bought a Mercedes. “God that old car sucked, it has so many dents (that I caused).”
[itunes.apple.com]
There is not a snowballs chance in hell that Don’s pitch was better than Michaels, but of course we will never know. Should Peggy be concerned Ginsberg is becoming the rising star of copywriting at SCDP? It was interesting to see how they fit Betty’s return to the show, and how she continues to try and poison the Draper’s marriage as well as Sally’s mind. We talk about “Dark Shadows” on the latest episode of Mad Cast, which can be found on iTunes here. [itunes.apple.com]
I wondered what happened to Lane, too. The fight with Pete was so awesome, and the scene afterward with Joan was so awkward. I was hoping they’d do something else interesting with him sometime soon.
Roger only has one ex-wife, Mona, and now he’s getting divorced from Jane. There’s no second ex (at least AFAIK).
Amazing how Alexis Bledel could be infinitely more sexy as a housewife here, in <10 seconds, than she was in an entire movie (Sin City) where she plays a hooker.
Again, let me advance my Fat Betty/Pam Poovey theory. Blabbermouth HR Pam. Blabbermouth Betty on Anna.
Two things: I like Betty, her persona is the result of years of…well basically abuse from Don.
Also, I always thought Alexis Bledel looked too much like a girl scout to be considered sexy. I was wrong.
Ginsberg has been christened as the Next Big Thing even before the actor was on camera, recall when Peggy was looking through the portfolios for a new writer and Stan rebuked her for looking at the most intriguing candidates, reminding her how she wouldn’t want to hire someone who would eventually become her boss. Soon after, Sterling pushes for him because a Jewish writer would make the agency more ‘modern.’ He IS competition, this most recent was just REALLY OVERT about it.
The Draper line seems stolen/borrowed from The Fountainhead and Howard Roark.
I think the Don/Ginsberg thing was a result of Don feeling creatively threatened by him. The whole episode seemed to have a theme of envy and resentment by the major characters (Peggy & Ginsberg/Sterling, Betty & Megan, Sally & Megan, Pete & Beth/Howard Dawes, etc.).
Plus, with Megan gone from the firm, Don is reverting back to his icy personality. With his ‘Love Leave’ finally over, we’re seeing the real Don Draper again.
As for Betty, without her the show really has no villian, now that Pete is feuding with Roger. So it works perfectly for me.
Just my 2 cents.
Interesting observations…
Pete Campbell Day Dreams has the potential to be a FANTASTIC spin-off series.
It finally makes sense. That little wiener kid is Weiner’s kid.
When Roger banged Jane and she was all bummed out afterwards saying how he ruined the apartment for her by nailing her, did anybody else want him to say “Well nobody forced you to spread them legs, Sugartits!” Anybody? Bear in mind, I’m a bit of an asshole.
And was that Dark Shadows product placement that Megan and her friend were reading for?
Nice digs by Megan on how crap the show was.
“STOP TALKING.”-Roger Sterling
I will never stop loving this man.
love the weird, “actually happened” sh*t they sprinkle in. I think a big one is coming…….
..
..
..
..the Mohawk Airlines plot. Mohawk plane crash kills 30 in June 1967
Yeah, I mentioned that in a previous post. If I were to bet, I’d put money that the next season opens with that incident — giving SCDP some serious damage control to deal with.
sorry, I usually hang at Warming Glow. it was flight to DC, which makes me think of.. …………… somebody’s new husband
The fact that Sally still has no idea that Don Draper does not actually exist is bad. If they wait too long to tell her, once she finds out, she’ll never talk to him again. Keeping that kind of a secret from your family is crazy wrong and if Don lives til his eighties, what he did will be a felony.
It’s already pretty dangerous and Sally looks likes she’s becoming the most teenage girly of girls. I’d be more likely to lock her in the garage than to tell her any secrets.
Look we all know that Sally is going to be a hippy chick whose parents hate her by the end of the 60s no matter what happens.
The idea that Roger could go broke might say more about us (it too drives me crazy) than him. A representation of the careless rich it just may be.
Roger’s not going broke: Don took 400K away from the Sterling Cooper sale, and he was barely a partner–which means Roger probably took 2MM. Jane’s apartment probably cost Roger 15K in ’66, and was worth every penny after he marked his territory.
Thanks for that. I tried searching it and got lost for ten hours on Business Insider’s thirty pages of Mad Men stuff.
(and imagine what that apartment would be worth today)
Seriously did no one exercise in the 60′s? Grown women weighing themselves while wearing 20 pounds of concealing clothing seemed to be counter intuitive.
OMFG A HALF A POUND LOST….
I seriously don’t think people, other than muscleheads, went to gyms until the aerobics craze kicked off in the late 70s/early 80s.
I thought they just gobbled up amphetamines like candy.
Come on…we all thought Betty was gonna head straight to Don’s fridge.
Oh man…not sure I could have handled that. I think I might have gone into cardiac arrest or something if she had gone rummaging through the Draper fridge.
Honest to God, when Betty ate the whipped cream, my wife looked over at me and said “Well, I know one GIF I’ll see on Uproxx tomorrow.” Nothing like watching a huge bitch battling herself.
Cajun Boy hit the trifecta on GIFs. Side Boob, Betty staring at Megan and of course Betty whip hit.
I was visibly angry when Betty mentioned Anna
Don presenting the devil idea made me squirm. It wasn’t that good. He is going to get lapped soon and it is going to be awkward.
I understand why he feels like he needs to prove himself to these younger writers, but the fact is HE DOESN”T!
I hate seeing him bothered like that, he’s the Creative Director, he’s already proven himself, he shouldn’t lower himself to Ginsberg’s level, he’s the fucking boss! JUST BE THE BOSS!!
Kinda cool the way Don dreamed up the Slurpee machine, though.
Agree with Bob below. Don doesn’t really need to prove himself… yet… Advertising can be cutthroat, and I’m sure Don will have legit competition at some point, but Ginsberg still has a bit of a precarious position at SCDP (he comes up with good ideas, but everyone thinks he’s annoying/crazy, not really the hero of the firm).