and then when you get back online, I rail into you with a riff on Who's WTJB? and the fact I've given you everything you wanted and I guess I've never been good enough for a Sunset brat like yourself and threaten to take the Sisters away from you and call you a vile, derogatory name like . . oh, I don't know, "harpy" or "strumpet" and when I hear gypsy cry out, recoil in self-disgust when I realize the wretched shell of a human being I had become.

But I'll choose the high road instead and just more or less ignore you for a minute or two, ok?

ditto

Just kidding.

Jon will be sad for a few days and then he'll win a Golden Globe or an Emmy and things will okay again, you'll see. Trust me. I know.

Take a pill and go lie down. I'll call you for dinner. (rolls eyes, lunges for the rye)

(stamps her fanfoot)

You just don't like Jon because he's good-looking! Or because (at least onscreen) he got the girl YOU wanted!

Or maybe he reminds you of your father. Was your father wicked hawt, LOM? Did your dad drive with a drink in one hand and an eye on the rearview for jogging nubiles?

Drat. Look what you just made me do.

I hate you. (fumes)

I agree with your assessment, Don's lineage and humble upbringing wasn't the only factor nor was that revelation even necessarily the last straw or anything. The sheer breadth and weight of the deceptions was too much at some point for Betty. Maybe the Oswald chaos and Don's traditional patriarchal stoic response to her astonishment and disbelief were the actual triggers after all.

"Flattering" is a judgement call for each of us, of course, but I feel confident in believing at least her decision was well-anchored and really not as shallow or impulsive as it may have appeared at first viewing.

I think the interview where Matt W says Betty's final straw was finding out that Don's mother was a prostitute is here:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ydsrszy

"The marriage was not good. It was built on a lie and the lie was exposed. In the end, Don coming clean really damaged his relationship with her, more than the lying, her seeing who he actually was. I do believe when he says his mother was a 22-year-old prostitute that Betty is looking at something that is very far from what she had planned for herself…"

and

"I didn’t want the marriage to end because she found out who he was; I wanted the marriage to end because she didn’t love him anymore. Her concept of what love is is a lot of what the season was about… I think Betty Draper is an impulsive person and she may have an arrested state in terms of what she was taught to expect from her life, to be taken care of by a man, to be loved and worshiped and adored…"

and

"Betty married Don because he was the whole package. He looked good on paper and that’s what she wanted. I think that Henry Francis does but in another way. Being put on a pedestal, being worshipped and adored, being accepted, in a way it’s almost more flattering to have a man be that attached to you who doesn’t know you. I think she’s very susceptible to that. Don has not given her any of those things, as far as she’s concerned."

So, if I read Matt correctly, Betty didn't leave him ONLY because of his birthright but that was definitely part of it. Overall not a very flattering picture of Betty, to my mind.

****

I wish you would change your mind falafel, but maybe we'll meet somewhere else on the intertrons.

falafel, You and I aren’t always on the same train of thought, we pass each other going opposite directions most days, but I feel your comments are generally always well-reasoned and clearly expressed. I’d miss seeing what you had to say.

I'm sorry. I've enjoyed commenting and discussing too.

I don't think it is fair to say "I may rudely criticise you and your comments" while demanding that no criticisms are murmured in return. I've seen other people's comments being unjustly policed here and it is very stiffling. I just don't feel comfortable or welcome in such an evironment.

But it's nice to know some people liked my comments and I didn't piss everybody off. Ciao! Ciao!

Surprisingly, I have to argue with you Anne! I know, how out of character of LOM! what gives? huh?

"I might think about not watching if Matt Weiner up and quit,"

You might think about it, for the most micro of micro-seconds, but you and I both know, perversely; deep inside; that we would still watch with the kind of morbid fascination that can be conjured up to witness a chicken bounce around after its been suddenly, swiftly, separated from its noodle.

I feel confident believing that the very human, gawking-at-the-scene-of-an-accident, dark curiosity about how exactly the storytelling would reanimate itself, rise up seemingly without its BRAIN, and carry on with a zombified exposition of The Tale of Two Drapers; that curiosity would need to be slaked at any and all costs of our rational time and attention. At least for a bit. AmIwrong??

And I think Hamm phones it in right now; always has. He's not acting. He's not Batman either; he IS Don Draper.

Much like Matt Helm was always Dean Martin or Dean was always Matt or. . , I forget . . . I'm dazed, confused.

Anne B, you tax me so. lol sis.

I have the same Q? as Meowser, did he really say that?

I don't read all the interviews carefully but I'd be interested in reading that one if you can point me to it, (I'm in slothful holiday mode this week and prefer not to search just now) That would give me something to reconsider while I continue to theorize about the impact of S3.
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I feel I may have projected some general flippant disregard up @11 and want to clarify.

I enjoyed this season despite its pronounced bleakness because I felt the dissolution of the Draper marriage was an essential thrust of the show and I admired the show for taking the time to deliberately detail the reality of how such a marriage falls apart. I admit and I understand it was painful and dark and at times boring and seemingly repetitive but it felt very genuine and real and that's why I was fascinated all season.

Now having meant all that, I actually missed the other storylines too when I sit down and think about it.

I feel a lot of the basic elements of the marriage meltdown could have been told in parallel snippets through the exploits of some other characters.

For example, they could have just as easily explored disappointment and dashed expectations and male boorishness and entitlement through the prism of Joan and Greg's marriage. And the topics would probably have felt fresher, certainly benefitting at the very least from just the charms of Joanie alone. Or you know, The Pryces were ideal foils for examining similar marital struggles too.

I kind of feel sad about the lost opportunities to turn over this kind of ground in those other characters' lives but the writers had to make a decision where to address this stuff most effectively. And the Drapers' slow spiral down and inevitable shattering was already out there and allowed for a more concentrated, visceral, lasting (maybe?) impact on us, I think.

I trust anyone who takes the time to write about the show or the time to comment on it clearly, especially here at BoK, does honestly and truly appreciate all the various different ways to focus a dark theme or to have great fun with a general dynamic idea.
I did not wish to trivialize or dismiss anyone's personal appreciation of the show. If it appeared that way, forgive me.
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falafel, You and I aren't always on the same train of thought, we pass each other going opposite directions most days, but I feel your comments are generally always well-reasoned and clearly expressed. I'd miss seeing what you had to say.

Come next door and argue with me for a while. Then maybe we'll pick up some sandwiches and a cake and apologize to Roberta and see how things shake out. Just an idea.