Basket of Kisses

There’s been a great deal of discussion in comments about Betty calling herself her father’s “little girl,” and behaving like one, even eating the peach that had been bought for the real little girl. And Basketcases are asking, What happened to the Betty of the latter half of Season 2? The Betty that stood up against Don’s relentless denial, kicked him out, and told him things weren’t that different with him gone?

I don’t think Betty has regressed because of pregnancy. I think she chose. Helen Bishop told her, “The hardest part is realizing you’re in charge,” and ultimately, Betty couldn’t take it.

Francine (come back, Anne Dudek!) knew of a doctor in Albany; that’s only a two-hour drive. Betty seemed ready to go. Instead, she had her fling in the back of a bar, ate some chicken, and invited Don back home. She placed a cap on her flirtation with freedom and went back to the way life had been. She told Helen “Sometimes I feel like I’ll float away, if Don isn’t holding me down.” She chose not to float away and now she clings to that, just as she clings to being Gene’s “little girl” while he tries to pry her grip loose long enough to show her that folder.

No word yet (of course–Mad Men is leakproof!) if we will see Darby’s Helen Bishop in Season Three, but let’s keep our fingers crosses. Her resurfacing at the end of S2 was most excellent.

Here’s hoping your birthday brings you a basket of kisses!

Part 1–The section from the recent Fresh Air interview where MW discusses the opening credits

(In response to Terry Gross saying it reminds her of September 11th)

I did the opening credits almost two and a half years years ago. And I had this image of this man falling out the window because if the show was on the air in 1960, they’d be talking about the stock market crash. When businessmen jump out of the window, it means something is wrong. I did not want it to be part of September 11th, other than the way that is part of our consciousness that something’s wrong, and that this man is metaphorically in freefall, and that canyon of buildings which are covered with images from his life in advertising–that’s the world that he’s falling through.

And then you just see him; that this is going on in his mind in the end, and that he’s sitting there in the pose of perfect confidence. And that’s what I was interested in, was a psychological state. It’s funny that no matter how much you abstract that image… it’s so powerful, and he’s a modern man he’s got a suit on and it’s computer animation and there’s a lot about it that should technically distance you from it, but it doesn’t. And the music is falling also… so for me I wanted to introduce people to this character and I only was allowed thirty seconds; the Sopranos opening titles are a minute and a half, and you can tell a whole story . So I had to go to the graphic punch of that.  And AMC is in New York, I lived in New York; I understand what this image means to people. This is part of the message of the show; it’s unpleasant and it reminds you of something.

Part 2–Betty falling through a canyon of buildings

A Night to Remember… Betty’s storyline in this episode, though it would have proven frustrating for the viewers, would have made for a perfectly respectable season closer. I know it wasn’t planned this way, but I’m glad it wound up that there was breathing room afterwards, via a week off to watch the Emmys.

First, she rides. Hard. Trying to shake it off; all the horrid feelings. And hugs that horse, gives it love for helping her, and being willing to connect with her the way no one else is willing. She turns to the horse the way she turned to Glen.

Then she starts in on Don. Not nearly as sweet as when she gave him her ‘honeydo’ list in Marriage of Figaro.

Later she uhh… beats on that poor, innocent chair.

For the dinner party, she is poised perfection. Her smile never breaks, even as she and Carla are cleaning up. And the second that she is alone with Don, she goes to the ledge. (more…)

Last Monday night Weiner, Hamm and Slattery were on Charlie Rose. This is where you want these guys, not on the View, not on Letterman.

The following is Matt Weiner. Charlie has asked what the viewers (us!) want from S2; what are they coming back to see:

I think they’re coming to see the continuing storyline. How is Don gonna deal with the fact that there are no repercussions in his life; are there repercussions. What happened to that marriage? At the end of last season, all of Betty’s psychosomatic illness was erased by the fact that she’s accepted the fact that he was unfaithful, and she told her therapist hoping that he’d tell Don.

Peggy had this meteoric rise to fame, but her denial of her weight gain and the fact that it was a pregnancy; she has to deal with the psychological reality of that.

So those are those things, and then there’s the part about the history. Which is people are saying like, when is the 50s going to end and when is the 60s going to start.

Few things. Meteoric rise to fame? Matt sometimes talks a drop faster than he thinks.

Love the bit about the history. It is part of what has us on the edge of our seats. We’re nibbling on each little nugget of what’s to come. It’s gonna be a long, long time before we see a bra burned, but we are scrutinizing for every baby step. It’s like we’re looking at them as they’re sleepwalking, and we know that the waking up isn’t gonna go smoothly, but they just have to wake up. Or some metaphor that’s better than that.

But it’s Betty’s hands that really grabbed my attention. (more…)

One thing we haven’t gotten much of a look at is the women’s grooming process. We see them all look so perfect (or, occasionally not, like Carol the day she got fired and Francine freaking out over Carlton’s affairs).

For the most part all we see is the occasional lipstick application. But we don’t see what it takes to get Joan’s and Betty’s hair so flawless, or Helen Bishop’s face looking photo-ready. (more…)

I’ve posted in the past about the Whedon connection to Mad Men. Well, my son and I are watching Angel on DVD these evenings, and lo & behold, looks like Darby Stanchfield (Helen Bishop) guest-starred in the Angel Season 2 episode “The Anniversary.”

It’s very geeky, but I love finding things like this.

Last week, April 17th, was Joel Murray’s birthday. Joel plays Freddy Rumsen, the drunk who discovered Peggy Olson’s knack for standing apart from the crowd, “seeing the benefit” of the product, and ultimately, for copywriting. I remember him as Greg’s goofy friend on Dharma and Greg.

And next week, April 29th, is Darby Stanchfield, who plays the oozing Helen Bishop. The AMC site/blog/thing just posted an interview with her. She’s been getting a lot of work over the last few years, and just nails it as Helen. And it’s more than simply a matter of how she works the pants…

(I’ve been working on a whole Helen Bishop post… gimme a few hours and come back for it.)

April birthday Kisses to both of you!

I was watching Long Weekend tonight, and taking extensive notes. I’ll have more to say later on. But for now, I was noticing this. That Don is not a womanizer.

People all over the Internet are angry at Don for cheating on Betty. And yeah, Don’s a cheater. An adulterer. These are bad things and we can be mad at Don. But he’s not a skirt-chaser. He’s not, to put it plainly, Roger Sterling. (And I have some thoughts about Roger I’ll also be fleshing out—no pun intended—in the near future.)

In Long Weekend, Roger says he wants to use Don “as bait.” He knows the way to go is to pick up two young women and end up with one. This isn’t new; he’s after the same thing in Red In the Face, and only wrangles an invitation to dinner when his plan fails.

Roger is a womanizer. He wants warm, lovely flesh. He wants a young woman to remind him of youth. He wants beauty and soft skin and lips like strawberries in milk. Don wants something different.

When Don says he wants to go home he means it. He doesn’t want to be with Roger, with twenty year-olds on their laps. He’s a bad husband, but he believes in the salvation of being a husband and having a family. And it’s when that salvation doesn’t pan out that he goes for Midge, and then for Rachel. He tells Rachel in Smoke Gets in Your Eyes that he doesn’t believe in love, but he’s deeply romantic; he believes each of these women might save him.

(more…)

Here’s a quick bit of parallel in the show that I hadn’t thought of before. Don grabs Betty. Betty reacts with a little fire in her eyes, but basically with passivity. Later, Betty slaps Helen.

So can we conclude that Betty was “really” slapping Don when she slapped Helen? A bit of deflected anger?

And then later the conversation with Francine, in which Francine lets off a litany of absolutely deranged reasons to hate Helen Bishop. De. Ranged. Add these two incidents together and it seems like this is who Helen is; a place for the married women to project all their fears, anxieties, and rage.

“I like redheads. Their mouths are like a drop of strawberry jam in a glass of milk.”

Forgive me, MM writers. I love you all.

But this episode, about which I have so much more to say, seems to have a big fat continuity issue.

Thursday #1
It is the end of the workday. Roger speaks to his wife about the weekend plans. He is then told by Bertram Cooper that the Nixon boys are coming in at the end of the week. Joan has a bag packed and is taking a train with her roommate Carol for a weekend away. No mention that she is taking a Friday off, but okay so far.

How do I know it’s Thursday? Don says to Peggy, trying to make sure she’s not working too late, “Just because tomorrow’s Friday, doesn’t mean I expect to be pulling your head off the keys in the morning”. (God, that line is a mouthful!)

That night, it’s drinks for Don and Roger, and then the disastrous dinner at the Drapers’.

Thursday #2
The next morning, Roger offers Don a bottle and an apology. At lunch Pete exchanges a chip-and-dip for a 22-caliber rifle. (more…)