If you haven’t noticed, I have been mostly absent lately. The reason is, I just moved last weekend. So, finding a new place, packing, etc. And over the holidays, when a lot of that was supposed to happen, I was down with bronchitis. Oh, and right in there my motherboard just… sputtered her way to eventual and ultimate demise, leaving me, for several weeks, with my iPhone as my main source of, well, of everything. And now? Okay sure I’ve moved, and I have this little netbook, but still a lot with the unpacking. AND??? I CAN’T FIND MY DVD PLAYER. Seriously. Another week and I’ll have to just suck it up and buy a new one. And of course the netbook does not have a disk drive. And I changed cable companies, so no more DVR. Connect the dots here, now–I CAN’T WATCH MAD MEN. AT ALL. ANYWHERE. I really don’t do well with all the disorientation of a move–even my computer and my cable is different. Whaaaah.
breeeathe
(There are a few S1 episodes on demand, I just discovered.)
But as I was saying, Matt says hi. Saturday he was appearing at the Rubin museum, and it promised to be a fascinating discussion. This thing had sold out weeks ago. Without getting into even more of my personal mini-drama, at the very last minute I decided to go and try to get in as a last-minute cancellation.
Yeah that didn’t work. I got there about fifteen minutes prior to the start time, and I was put on a list with easily 20 other people. I asked if they could get a message to Matt, knowing it was a longshot. Nope. I suppose had I planned this better at all, I could have contacted him in advance. Please know–we don’t exactly have him on speed-dial, but we do have some access.
So I’m not getting in. I decide to hang at the museum (Deb, you really should go–they have some amazing Hindu and Tibetan sculptures and relics; just breathtaking) and then set myself up for stalking mode. I spoke to people about where he would likely be when it was over, etc. I am poised and ready.
The transition from poised and ready to seeing him just isn’t that interesting. Pretty much, I waited, I watched, and eventually I went to where I figured out he was.
It was so delightful to see him. I think you all know, you can tell by his interviews and clips, that he is just so likable. He greeted me warmly, and we spoke while he was wrapping up and heading out, for maybe a total of ten minutes. Not an interview, just general discussion about last season, the attention it’s received, the largeness of the fan base, how I should have let him know and he could have tried to get me in (D’oh!), (and speaking of D’oh, about the coolness of casting Lisa Simpson in The Fog), and just general schmoozing.
Ohh and John Slattery and Robin Veith were there as well; John is just as handsome with a beard (sooo tall), and I feel a genuine connection with Robin. Maybe it’s the name (not so far off, and my mom almost named me Robin).
Here is what Matt gave me:
Season Three was about anticipation. It starts with the baby. Now, I know he’s talked about this, how there was all this expectation of how the baby was going to change everything, and then it was just life going on, and not any better. But I need to spend more time with this. All I’ve heard is that Season Three was about change, and now I want to apply anticipation-as-theme to the whole season. This is a season that I haven’t fully absorbed yet, and it has literally been two months since I’ve watched an episode.
But top of my head–
Am I getting this right?
Season Three, Anticipation. Discuss.
9 Responses to “Matt says hi, and talks Season 3 theme”
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I've now heard that the discussion will be airing at some point on PBS. The one between Matt and Morgan Stebbins, not the one with Matt and me. That'd be cool though.
They are also nominated together for two Writer's Guild awards, which happens in two weeks. Good luck to the team!
I think her departure was a mutual decision, from what I've heard, so I'm not entirely surprised she was there. Good for her. She lives in NYC now because she's writing for a F/X series that's based there.
Good stuff, Roberta, thanks for sharing!
Interesting that Robin was there, no?
Nice interesting. Refreshing interesting. Relieving interesting.
Roberta! How wonderful for (both of) you.
To your musings on Anticipation/Season 3: what comes up for me is all about Betty.
Betty wanted a dramatic change in her life in Season 2, and got it when she banished Don from the Draper home. The news that she was pregnant was her first unhappy surprise. This, for her, meant more of Life As Usual … no matter how much she still wanted something else.
In Season 3, Betty expected a baby girl. (A smaller version of herself, a connection to her lost mother, a fresh start?) But what she got was a boy: not what she'd anticipated.
Nor was her love for that child what she'd expected. That love replaced her grief for her father, reshuffled her other children, and eventually locked the two of them, Betty and little Gene, in an embrace no one else in the family could break.
Betty Draper didn't expect much of what happened in 1963: a son instead of a daughter, the appearance of a new love interest while at the Derby Day party with her husband, the loss of her father, and a couple of very public deaths.
But as Joan would say, That's life. There's what we plan for and then there's what we get. The resemblance the latter bears to the former usually ends in the outline of the plan — if we ever had one.
At the end of a few days in which I learned that my own sister — the mother of one great little daughter, and a deep planner — is expecting her first son, I gotta say: I'm a late convert to the Church of the Unexpected Blessing. At its best, life has a wild rhythm … but we can never accuse it of being anything less than true to itself first.
Keep us updated if/when it will be airing on PBS. I'd be really interested to see it.
Anticipation of what will change after you know that things may no longer be the same. But as we cynical adults know, how much things change and how much they stay the same.
Betty thought the new baby would improve her relationship with Don and during the pregnancy it may have. But after the baby arrived, she was dealing with a crying infant and nothing had really changed. Having her father move in represented a possibility to get closer to him and have him become closer to his grandchildren. And then he died. Don achieved additional success at SC, but was home even less than before. When Don did try to do something nice for Betty, she could not get past the fact that nothing had really changed between them.
To me this was summed up in "The Souvenir". Betty thought that an adventure would change her life. Much to her regret, she returned home and realized nothing had changed. When she sarcastically thanked Don for his thoughtful gift, she realized she no longer wanted to stay married to Don or want the life they had built together. She had been unhappy for a long time, now she knew why in a way that summarized everything- Don's infidelity, feeling trapped by a new baby, grief over the loss of her father, dissatisfaction with the life she had etc. She hated her life. I think it was at this point that she started to look for a way out.
For Betty, anticipation of positive change was replaced by the reality of no real change at all.
Matt brings up the Tiger Woods situation in this interview about beginning the new season…a hint that Don & Betty will reunite?
http://flavorwire.com/69179/on-the-therapists-cou…