Not-so-live blogging “Three Sundays”
1st Sunday – Our Lady of Perpetual Motion (old George Carlin line … RIP George)
First viewing I forgot he was Colin Hanks – now I can’t stop thinking about it.
Insert Thorn Birds joke here. Mine is: “Hi I’m Father Richard … Richard Chamberlain.”
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, there’s definitely some pseudo-sexual tension here – deliberately communicated. Not that it’s meant in a scandalous way … nowadays, priests in media & entertainment are unfortunately all painted with the same brush, so any man in a frock that makes eye contact with a lady – or God forbid, a young boy – will look like he’s leering, even when he’s not. But there’s some mutual checking out, in a way that I imagine was commonplace in 1962.
Draper boudoir
“Hot dogs … no Don, not yours.”
Draper living room
I have got to teach my kids to tend bar.
Sight gags using people’s reading material is a very Soprano’s device.
It’s 10 a.m., we’re drunk … let’s dance.
Olsen house
Jerry’s laid up – lucky.
Can’t take my eyes off Peggy’s mom … now that is a dowager.
Interesting that Peggy clearly grew up in a home with very strong women – from observation, more so than was typical … Mom and Anita are real hens.
“Hey, Pipsqueak. Cut the horseshit. We didn’t hump all week on this smorgasbord to get the Cliff’s Notes. On your feet, Kip, Jr.”
You get the feeling that carcass was just the amuse bouche.
Some blogger somewhere mentioned that the guitar and harmonica references are a pattern presaging Dylan’s influence to come. Interesting.
Taking the photo with Jerry behind them cracks me up. You know he’s lying there waiting for the sweet release of death.
Sterlings at Dinner
So what’s the consensus … she ,can’t be more than 18, right?
Anyone think the daughter’s voice sounds a little affected … a little Jackie-like?
Mona married into a wealthy family … wonder if she grew up with money. Probably, right?
Roger knows he’s outnumbered.
Father Gil’s Car
Peggy’s advice is straight from her heart – her tone is always different when she’s referencing work. When the topic changes she sounds like a little girl. She’s a great actress.
Draper boudoir
Oh those great family moments – everyone on Mom & Dad’s bed giggling. Ohhhh shit.
Peggy’s totally unhinged.
When Don was lying there after everyone left, did anyone else think (hope?) we were about to see a flashback?
Restaurant interior
That Vicky’s a player.
Uhh. Huh-huh. He said “scrod.”
Don’s office
Bobbie Barrett … as my aunt would say, “This one’s got rounded heels.”
Joan’s used to being on the other side of the door when it’s being locked.
Ken’s office
“Keep up the good work … getting our clients laid is worth more than the commissions on their media.”
Draper home
Don’s still wearing that hat.
“He lied to my face. You know how I feel about that. Oh wait, you don’t. My passive-aggressive bullshit keeps me from telling you anything. It’s my therapist on the phone … he has something to tell you.”
“Bets, I’m way mellow from the blowie I just got from that hack’s wife-ager. Just feed my ass.”
2nd Sunday – Olsen home
“Peggy helped you write something?” Uh oh.
S-C Offices
I spit with laughter every time I see that friggin’ Bill Tilden outfit on Pete.
“Why is he here?” – guess Roger forgot to write that memo.
“Don, I’m going to snap my fingers and you’re going to perform like a monkey for us. Waddya say?”
“Hey Moses – why don’t you part your ass cheeks and stick that pencil where it’ll do some good.”
Don ends the meeting – alpha dog’s barking again.
Don’s office
Sal’s pitch makes him look like a pussy.
“What’s up with that ad? When did Bobbie Barrett become a stewardess?”
Roger’s hotel room
When God closes a door … he opens a skirt.
Paul’s office
“Is that your maid?”
“No, but she does clean my pipes.”
S-C bullpen
Cooper’s pissed. Can’t help thinking that his tirade is some sort of parallel to what Betty said about Bobby getting praise for what he didn’t do. Isn’t letting someone take the blame for your actions somehow the other side of that coin? Any other interpretations?
Don’s office speech about the new direction for the AA pitch was a good one – and a fresh take… until the last line. Quick: name one thing that happened in 1963. Oops.
Roger’s hotel room
She detests him. She’s disgusted, no?
S-C Conference Room
Anyone else think this is the music playing in Sal’s head all the time?
“Name two things that don’t exist anymore: Shel Keneally’s job, and my credibility.”
Don smirks when Roger says it’s over.
Confessional
First off, the confession scene from Seinfeld was funnier.
I’ll act like Roberta didn’t beat me to the punch and say that Anita’s confession and Peggy’s speech in Don’s office in The Wheel are very similar. So there.
For the record, Anita knew precisely what she was doing. Knew every step of the way that it would damage Peggy in the eyes of Father Gil. And then put on the woe is me routine.
Everything that Gil says, from “God loves you,” to “She’s not as strong as you are,” all sound like by-the-book things to say – I don’t believe he’s trying to address Anita’s comments at all. He’s still reeling from the revelation and is on auto-pilot. IMO.
S-C Conference Room
“It’s like having that first cigarette.” Or that first kiss.
“Heart pounds, knees go weak. Remember that?” I do – just paid $200 to remember it again.
“Old business is just old business.” Banging Mona got boring years ago. Roger-Dodger needs some strange every now and then, see?
Of course, Roger’s pathetic. He’s drawn that way. “I just want what I want.”
But here’s another interpretation – not necessarily one that I endorse, but just one I’m exploring.
Roger’s an optimist. He’s jaded as hell, but still believes there’s another rush around the corner. The difference between him and the sad old philanderer is that Roger still gets the high. Once he discovers that the fleeting high is an illusion to begin with, he’ll crumble … and all that charm will go away, because there’ll be no use for it. Right now it’s what gets him up in the morning. That’s why the first two heart attacks were so interesting – they were the wakeup calls that he hit Snooze on. But wait … another one’s around the corner. Consequences.
Draper residence
Betty’s father’s “doing better”? Did he have a heart attack? Stroke? Did he break up with that Army Colonel?
Don’s conversation with Bobby. This moves the shit out of me … the writing is amazing and the exchange is performed with perfection. Don is literally riding the threshold between past and present. His face has a different cast when he’s talking about personal things. My son’s about Bobby’s age (4 ½) and that “new daddy” line is just heartbreaking.
“It’s not about what I do.” Keep repressing, Birdie.
Third Sunday - Easter – Church courtyard
The look on Father Gil’s face – the fact that he walks away – his not engaging Peggy in a meaningful way. Just a bomb right on her head. I don’t care how he knows what he knows, she doesn’t deserve it. But the thinking at the time was probably that her sin trumps everything else, so it’s okay to shit on her.
I’m not knowledgeable about the Church and Catholicism to know how it was done at the time, but it just seems like the standard “two wrongs make a right” - “yeah, but you had a baby out of wedlock, so you have no say how you’re to be treated.”
That really could be the way things were. Of all the kinds of dissonance shown on the show, this is the kind that irks me the most.
Finally, S2 has moved at a pretty languid pace - filling in a piece here, a piece there. No huge plot advances, save for American Airlines and Father Gil. But last season it was 5G (fifth episode) when things took off in terms of Don’s past and the season broke into a gallop. Next week is the fifth episode, and I’ll bet that the pace picks up quickly from here.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I don’t think Father Gill was shitting on Peggy at the end. He seems waaay more open minded than most priests.
I think it was his way of telling Peggy that he knew about her situation and that’s all it was.
I also don’t think Betty can be wholly blamed for repressing her feelings or not telling Don what she wants.
Don doesn’t tell her anything and he never treats her opinions as valid. He either ignores her or brushes her off.
Betty has to have a real breakdown before he takes her seriously. Last season she wanted an AC, a lake house, and a therapist. She only got the therapist because she began crying during dinner.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:01 am
LOL, Coop. Another great write-up. Very cutting.
Heh. Nice shout-out to Bosom Buddies and Tom Hanks’ character. And FYI, Kip and Henry also worked in…ADVERTISING! Okay, so I’m a TV junkie. But I loved that show. Tom Hanks was really cute then. Even in a dress…
Is stewardess a new euphemism for…oh, wait! It is!
And I agree with you about Father Gil. He was completely sh*tting on Peggy. The scene when he gives her the egg is very similar to the scene when Betty learns that Don has been talking to her shrink. Like she’s been violated or something.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:22 am
The thing I love best about this show, and the thing that causes the most outrage is that they absolutely positively capture the way men could and did treat women, and even better there is a pitch perfect rendition of how Gods on Earth–doctors and priests–were just given carte blanche to stomp all over women.
You’re right Hulla–the scene parallels Betty’s violation by her shrink, but you are wrong to say they are shitting on these women. These men genuinely believe they have the little woman’s best interest at heart. Viewed in its historical context, Gil’s comment to Peggy is meant to be kind–to open the door to her should she desire to reconcile with the church.
After watching this show I now know why women were so f***ing pissed off in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:36 am
B Cooper: Father Gil had his priest face on when he gave Peggy the egg making me think it was for public show. I don’t know if his knowledge of Peggy’s son horrifies or facinates him. So instead of a direct intervention we get the blue bomb and Peggy considering the symbolic meaning of the whole thing.
I thought it funny how Peggy’s tips on how to pitch copy worked so well for his sermon.
I still think Don will do some Duck hunting soon, maybe if he got on with ruining that comic he would get to closer prey.
Betty comes across disconnected but she was right about her son, he does things he should be talked to about, or did the trip to the emergency room slow him down for this week?
August 20th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Margaret Sterling is approximately 18; was 16 in S1. And yes, there’s probably some money. She was visiting her mother last season in, wait for it, Montclair. And Montclair does, to this day, have both ends of the spectrum; the Newark facing side is lower-rent, the main downtown has the cool shops, and there are very very big old expensive homes on the outskirts.
Very interesting thoughts about Roger, and about the pace of the season.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I am with Jess re: Betty. Her complaint that Don got to come home late and play the hero was something I had been waiting for since The Marriage of Figaro, with him not coming home with the cake, being late drunk and welcome as he has the dog. Versions of that scene have happened almost every time we see Don come home. She is more visibly upset this season, but considering the alcohol intake and the decision not to break up their day visiting friends, I’ll give her some sympathy.
Regarding the pacing. You may be right about there being more action in the upcoming episodes, but as far as comparing the mood piece of the first four episodes you fail to mention the big tone shift; starting with the Lucky Strike campaign and the desire to see Nixon in the office, all the plots were about a semi successful attempt to continue the lifestyle of the previous decade. Sterling Cooper may have been a “dinosaur,” but they were the norm and classy. Not so much by 1962.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I’m not knowledgeable about the Church and Catholicism to know how it was done at the time, but it just seems like the standard “two wrongs make a right” - “yeah, but you had a baby out of wedlock, so you have no say how you’re to be treated.”
I think you’re right, certainly this is Anita’s attitude toward Peggy (hence the “the State of New York didn’t think so” jab a couple episodes ago (Flight 1?). But I think it is a bit more nuanced with Fr. Gill - like a lot of people here. One big issue for Anita, and perhaps for Fr. Gill, is that Peggy has not repented or confessed her sin. She does not go to Communion, which is a visible sign that she has rejected the church and its constraints - she is only at Mass because it’s what her mother wants. Were she repentent, I think both Anita and Fr. Gill would be kinder.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Hi all,
I watched the episode for a second time last night and caught something I missed the first time. In the scene where Father Gil and Peggy are talking in the car, she tells him that she doesn’t get nervous when she makes presentations as long as she is prepared and has confidence in her product, and Father Gil says, “I am definitely prepared.” In other words, he is NOT confident in his product, i.e. the church and its teachings. VERY telling! As is the harmonica and guitar reference–this guy is Vatican II (if not III!).
I am terribly afraid we are moving into Thornbirds territory here–but I hope not. After all, Matt Weiner worked on The Sopranos, the only TV show ever in which a longterm therapist/patient relationship did not end in sex (well, Bob Newhart doesn’t count). So I hope Peggy and Gil can help each other without going that way–and I saw the egg more as a blessing of her having the child out of wedlock, rather than a condemnation.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Wow Lorina–good catch! Watching the show the first time I had the sense that there was definitely a possibility of romantic attraction between Peggy and Gil, but then after watching it again and reading a lot of the observations posted here I wonder if this is the backstory:
Brooklyn back then was a network of extremely insular and small communities organized around the local parish or synagogue. I am not sure if there were any Protestants in Brooklyn at the time–there must have been, but each Irish or Italian or Puerto Rican (don’t know if they were in Brooklyn at the time) neighborhood had its church as the epicenter, its parish school and a network of local businesses. Everybody was in everybody’s business all the time–you could not turn around without some neighbor seeing you and speculating about it. Population density was high, public transit was the norm, so walking down the street to catch the bus would be observed by many, many people.
Some were critical that Gil had violated the confessional but I don’t think that’s true. I think he knew exactly who the Olsons were, who the baby was, why the baby was being raised by Anita, and why Peggy never came to church and rarely showed up in the neighborhood. He would know this from the other parishioners and the nuns and priests assigned to the Church of the Holy Innocents.
You do not think this kind of scrutiny exists, but I heard it here in my very own much larger more anonymous parish–we have one priest who is run ragged and yet he managed to keep tabs on who is sick, who is getting divorced, who is pregnant, who is not able to get pregnant, who is dying, and who did or didn’t change their pattern of Mass attendance. They were talking about a lady who had died and one of the women remarked that Father had asked her about Mrs. S. because she hadn’t been to Mass in a long time.
So my bet after thinking about this waaay too much is that Fr. Gil knows all about Peggy and is genuinely worried as a priest about her immortal soul, and worried as a seemingly decent man about how she is doing emotionally. His offer to drive her to the station was not lurid, it was an attempt to get her away from her family in a private setting so that if she wanted to unburden herself she could.
Anyway, that’s my $.02. With this show it’s never (well except for the pregnancy) about the obvious soap opera plot. It’s usually much more mundane and more about people muddling through without being caught breaking too many of the numerous social rules of the day.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Surly, you miss an important point. Fr. Gil is the new guy, new in Brooklyn, just arrived and just visiting. He didn’t know that Greenwood was a cemetery or that the relative being visited was dead. Clearly MUCH more common knowledge than an unacknowledged pregnancy and a secret adoption.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:29 am
Deborah, while Fr. Gil is new there is a over a week between the first Sunday and Anita’s confession. Then several days between the confession and Easter. While Fr. Gil’s knowledge of the community is cursory at first but probably growing exponentially. The confession let us know how Anita interpreted her feelings and that Fr. Gil would know by the final scene but we do not know what other information he got, nor how he got it. And for the most part that is superfluous (at least for now).
Elisabeth Moss has said that things are not as the appear in the relationship between Peggy and baby. Mad Men is not the type of show to through out a lot of twists, so I assume that what she meant is that we are not going to get the story we would expect with the set up.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:44 am
I think Fr Gill offered Peggy a ride so HE could escape. As soon as she said she had to go, his face read: Here’s my Chance!
I found their relationship very intriguing. I think she’s a breath of fresh air for him and I sense that he will help her come to terms with her baby. He seemed to me to be portrayed as being a ‘new age’ priest and an independent thinker (for all the reasons Lorina stated, his casual prayer and his disinterest in the fussy traditions). I read his ‘handing her the blue egg’ as an offering of understanding.
I understand he only appears in one more episode. Bummer.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the seriously squirmy relationship between Carmela and the priest on “The Sopranos,” which ended when Carmela called him out on his inappropriate relationships with several married women from the parish (”and it has something to do with food”). But as I watched Fr. Gil, i didn’t really squirm. I thought his final gesture of handing the egg to Peggy was sympathetic.
I’m still reading through the posts, having watched the episode only last night, but has there been any discussion yet of the themes of Easter, redemption, the Holy Innocents (the name of the church), all the face-time the children get in this episode, and the egg?
Finally, Sal’s pitch makes him look like a pussy. What does that even mean? I really gotta object to the use of the word “pussy” absent gobs of irony and feminist consciousness. If the latter is implicit, enlighten me.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am
herdaturtles, I think that’s a good catch about Fr. Gil escaping; those women make him uncomfortable! He is a hint of youth movement and hippie priests to come.
portias, I’m standing by my belief that Gil isn’t in on the community grapevine. I don’t think we get shown a gaffe like his about Green-wood just for laughs, it’s meant to be illustrative.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
When Don comes out for his big speech about “American’s not about the past any more than America is,” and “that crash happened to someone else,” he’s saying he doesn’t want the entire pitch to revolve around that horrible event. Don’t dwell. Move on. There’s a new frontier to contend with.
He thinks everyone should move on, starting with themselves.
Sal’s description of the ad: “Everything’s … fine.” He looks like he was on the plane that moment. It was the least convincing, least confident pitch ever.
While somewhat perjorative, the term wasn’t meant in a gender-bias way. More in the spirit of the overall post. Not meant to offend.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
“Surly, you miss an important point. Fr. Gil is the new guy, new in Brooklyn, just arrived and just visiting. He didn’t know that Greenwood was a cemetery or that the relative being visited was dead. Clearly MUCH more common knowledge than an unacknowledged pregnancy and a secret adoption.”
I don’t think I’m missing anything. I’m assuming something not shown–the fact that he was invited to the Olson’s for lunch meant they had some contact with him prior to him showing up on their doorstep. He would have had the chance to get the download on the family from the Monsignor or another priest who had been at the parish. It’s possible he may have accepted the Olson’s invitation out of many invitations from families to host the new priest for Sunday lunch BECAUSE of the fact that they were struggling with a wayward daughter.
You are right–he woudn’t necessarily know where the cemetary was unless there had been a funeral or some discussion of it, but there was certainly opportunity for him to get background information on the Olsons.
All of that assumes that they had sought baptism or in some way shared the Peggy situation with the church, which in that time would have been plausible. Infants had to be baptized right away, and Peggy may have been urged to go to Confession after they found out about her baby.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
It’s not that he didn’t know where the cemetary was; he didn’t know the son or whoever was dead. That, to me, precludes the notion that he’d been informed about the family.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the exchange between Father Gil and Peggy with the egg. I swear Anita was intently watching them from the sideline.
LOL, B. You rock! Absolutely LOL about the “clean my pipes” line.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I watched the episode again this morning and had a sudden thought while watching the confessional scene with Anita and Father Gil.
Maybe I’m all wrong about this. Maybe the baby is Anita’s and Peggy can’t relate to him because her baby, which was adopted out, is gone and she can’t come to terms with what has happened. It’s all too much.
It’s not like you ever forget about a child who was adopted. I was an unmarried teenager whose baby was adopted and I had to keep it a secret. I think about him and pray for him and his life every day. It was forty years last February.
I’m not obsessed about it and I have another son now, but there are still some tears from time to time, especially birthdays and holidays, and when people my age show me pictures of their grandchildren.
I never say I gave him up. I gave him a family and that was the best that I could do as his mother.
Maybe I see too much of myself in Peggy. I didn’t deny my pregnancy as long as she did, but my friends did drag my to a doctor despite my insistence that it couldn’t be true and I was about four months along. I was hidden away and afterwards I was told to pretend it never happened.
Matt Weiner has made me think about things that are difficult and challenging to me in a very personal way. It’s OK. It’s part of who I am.
I don’t know if the baby in the family is Peggy’s or not, but there’s something I understand about the character. I’ll be watching to see what happens next.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Patti, that’s a huge thing to share. Thank you for that.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Thank you Deborah.
You know what is really funny? My parents had the same set of glassware that the Drapers have. You know the ones with the gold leaves?
They played cards with the neighbors on Saturday nights, too, and yes, I did play bartender! Their game was Canasta.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for sharing Patti. That was a tough time for pregnant teens. Now you have these scandals about some teens girls who got pregnant together as a pact. Jeez, from one extreme to another.
You want to hear something really ironic. I knew a girl in High School, got pregnant and back then (1983) was sent to “Pregnant high school” in Texas until she delivered. They had that at some church. She gave the baby up for adoption. Little girl.
Giselle, my friend, missed her daughter and thought of her a lot. She eventually married a very religious man and had two very beautiful children. She even home schooled her kids.
Giselle became very, very religious. And she took on some very opposing views of homosexuality.
Irony is, she and her daughter were reunited some 5 years ago. The daughter grew up and had a good life. But, she is a Lesbian.
Giselle had to do some major soul searching and via the last letter from her she said that she and the woman were working on some kind of relationship, but Giselle was having a hard time overcoming her predjudices.
Sad story to me.
I think the baby is Peggy’s. Too much camera time devoted to him. It would be a major joke on us if it isn’t.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Now you have these scandals about some teens girls who got pregnant together as a pact. Jeez, from one extreme to another.
Which turns out to be a hoax. There were several pregnant girls, and this guidance counselor or principal, I forget which, told the media they’d made a pact, and that was the first the girls had heard of it. The counselor/principal was fired.