Comments on: Mad News, October 15-20, 2009

By: linhui

linhui — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:24:38 +0000

Iâ€™m going to write my Ibsen Hypothesis of Mad Men tonight on my own blog. Er, if I have the energy. The last episode was a dead giveaway. In the last inside video for The Color Blue, Weiner drops another clue. He says the episode is set up in such a way to showcase Don at the podium. Ibsen wrote this way too. For Ibsen, it was the confrontation between characters that was important. the final conversation, the argument and postulates and summary that was the most significant thing in his plays. The rest of the plot merely set up the moment for this confrontation to occur.
So, what fresh new clues do we have lately? The Color Blue was referenced in A Dollâ€™s House, a little obliquely but it is still recognizable. From the last act, when Nora sees her husband and her own life clearly, we get the following exchange when she tells him she is leaving:

Helmer. This is unheard of in a girl of your age! But if religion cannot lead you aright, let me try and awaken your conscience. I suppose you have some moral sense? Orâ€“answer meâ€“am I to think you have none?

Nora. I assure you, Torvald, that is not an easy question to answer. I really donâ€™t know. The thing perplexes me altogether. I only know that you and I look at it in quite a different light. I am learning, too, that the law is quite another thing from what I supposed; but I find it impossible to convince myself that the law is right. According to it a woman has no right to spare her old dying father, or to save her husbandâ€™s life. I canâ€™t believe that.

The whole last act is all about awakening to oneself and seeing reality as it really is and not as convention would have it. And then, thereâ€™s this:

Helmer. How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you not been happy here?

Nora. No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never really been so.

Helmer. Notâ€“not happy!

Nora. No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papaâ€™s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.

Don Draper: â€œI want to show you off.â€

That had to be the bingo moment for Betty. She is Nora. And now that she has power, things are going to change in the Draper household. Are we going to see an Ibsen-esque confrontation in the last episode between Betty and Don? Does she even have to physically leave? Maybe she just separates her life from his without moving out. Or she moves back to her Dadâ€™s house. Or she makes him move them all to Manhattan. Whatever happens, it will be Betty doing the driving.

Now, about Don as Peer Gynt and Joan doing a half-caf, triple toe Gablerâ€¦

By: Bibba

Bibba — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:14:04 +0000

If Don is Peer Gynt, has the problem of the Mountain King’s daughter been addressed in an earlier episode? Was Anna Draper with her bad leg symbolic of the malformed child? She seems like a good force, not an evil one, though. I guess I was wondering if his latest mistress is the Mountain King’s daughter.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:57:07 +0000

Yahoo editor discusses blackface and mentions Mad Men.
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/french-vogu…

By: acdavis

acdavis — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:41:11 +0000

I really enjoyed the Rachel Shukert Unsolicited Advice, and am enjoying reading her unsolicited advice as well. Great find!

By: JS

JS — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:41:38 +0000

Here's a new clip for this week (Semi-Spoilery, of course):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1PR-6oSs0

By: gypsy howell

gypsy howell — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:30:54 +0000

Another interesting article, this from Chief Marketer

(even when I'm working, my life is interrupted by MM!)
http://chiefmarketer.com/disciplines/branding/100…

By: Todd C

Todd C — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:26:25 +0000

Also since this is kinda new related…I ordered my Mad Men suit on Monday (the first day that they went on sale at Brooks Brothers) and they have already sold out as of late yesterday when I checked back. Some are saying they sold out the very first day. I have gotten 2 emails stating 2 different ship dates, the first email stating Oct.30 and then the 2nd email stated its now Nov. 11 that it will ship. At this rate i'm hoping i will still get my suit. Also i thought this was interesting….its a picture of the set up from one of the stores with props etc. (notice the Popsicle ad on the desk).
http://nouveauvintage.blogspot.com/2009/10/offici…

By: Greg H

Greg H — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:15:05 +0000

I really liked the interview with January Jones. I think she looked scary as hell on the front page with those eyes of hers.

She’s the kind of woman that invokes both desire and a little bit of fear.

By: la peregrina

la peregrina — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:59:00 +0000

“The Minneapolis Star-Tribune thinks that Mad Men-obsessed bloggers are underrated, but fails to mention the Basket, which may be why the paper is in dire financial straits.”

LOL

By: SmilerG

SmilerG — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:05:44 +0000

That interview with Scott Buckwald was great!

I am continually blown away by how much effort goes into keeping each episode historically accurate, with such a keen eye on even the smallest item or detail.

Earlier this season, in the episode with Joan and Greg entertaining guests in their home, I noticed a spice rack in the background that was exactly like one that was in my Mom's kitchen, when I was a youngster.