Mad Men season 3 ep 8
Mar. 11th, 2010 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightI haven't said anything about Mad Men in a while. Not sure why as I'm still enjoying it enormously. Far and away the best thing on telly at the moment.
Spoilers within for ep 8
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vampirefever had linked to the Guardian's online Mad Men blog, which I was not aware of (terrible, I know, me being a Guardian reader), and I've just spent a happy twenty minutes flicking through the posts about the latest season (ep 3 is mysteriously missing). So many thanks to her.
I feel I don't really have a lot of interesting thoughts of my own to add, after reading this blog, which is chockful of useful facts about the period and mentions stuff I would never have got (for instance, I had no idea that the African American man with Betty's mother in her hallucinations while giving birth was Medgar Evers the murdered Civil Rights leader, and that it was his funeral that was being shown on TV in that episode. Yet another pointer that outside the insular, privileged world of the Mad Men, important battles are being fought that will change things forever. Not yet, though.)
Sorry, long digression there. Anyway, my own scattershot impressions:
I felt really sorry for Betty in this episode. We've had several reminders this season that she's far from stupid - is, in fact, well-educated, intelligent and far more cosmopolitan than Don, even if sometimes she's not very nice. She got to shine this time, and, as the blog says the contrast between Rome Betty - who was confident, sexy and very much at ease - and Long Island (?) Betty who is cold, stiff and prone to sudden acts of violence (the pigeon shooting, also the incident with the dining chair in season 2) is very striking. It was also nice to see her being kinder to poor little Sally, though poignant at the same time, as she unloads her disappointed romantic fantasies (Don didn't quite measure up after all) onto the kid.
Carla the maid reappeared, was thoroughly put-upon and never even got a thank you (though she did get $5 and maybe she would rather have that anyway, as a thank you from Betty's friend - whose name I forget - is probably not worth having).
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Pete Campbell lost any Brownie points he might have gained from being found reading Ebony in his office and from giving Peggy some very sound advice in the previous episode, which she sadly ignored. In fact, Pete is thoroughly back in the 'what a little bastard' column. First, he rapes a girl (because yes, there was no violence involved, but I do think it was rape, though no one at the time would have) and then he blames it on his wife for leaving him all alone. What a total little s**t.
I suppose it was his turn to be a s**t this week. It was Don's turn last week to take out his frustrations on women - first on Peggy and then on Betty. In fact, there's no two ways about it, the men in this show are a bunch of utter bastards.
Interesting, though - rounded characters in a way so few characters are on TV, and with not an anachronistic attitude between them.
I would love to see them all get their comeuppance when the show ends for good, but I suppose if it's true to what we've had so far, that won't happen. Would be nice, though, if it did. Possibly, there is loads of Mad Men fanfic out there, where Betty reads Betty Friedan or Marilyn French and throws Don out of the house for good and Peggy ends up as boss of Sterling Cooper, who knows?
Another good thing about this episode - Joan! Yay! for Joan. I really missed her last week and hope she finds her way back to Sterling Cooper soon. The place just isn't the same without her.
Speaking of the Sterling Cooper office, I wonder what happened to the secretary who had that little 'accident' in the mini-tractor? Not seen the character since, but am wondering if Lane-Price secretly gave her a raise for saving him from Bombay.
Spoilers within for ep 8
vampirefever had linked to the Guardian's online Mad Men blog, which I was not aware of (terrible, I know, me being a Guardian reader), and I've just spent a happy twenty minutes flicking through the posts about the latest season (ep 3 is mysteriously missing). So many thanks to her.I feel I don't really have a lot of interesting thoughts of my own to add, after reading this blog, which is chockful of useful facts about the period and mentions stuff I would never have got (for instance, I had no idea that the African American man with Betty's mother in her hallucinations while giving birth was Medgar Evers the murdered Civil Rights leader, and that it was his funeral that was being shown on TV in that episode. Yet another pointer that outside the insular, privileged world of the Mad Men, important battles are being fought that will change things forever. Not yet, though.)
Sorry, long digression there. Anyway, my own scattershot impressions:
I felt really sorry for Betty in this episode. We've had several reminders this season that she's far from stupid - is, in fact, well-educated, intelligent and far more cosmopolitan than Don, even if sometimes she's not very nice. She got to shine this time, and, as the blog says the contrast between Rome Betty - who was confident, sexy and very much at ease - and Long Island (?) Betty who is cold, stiff and prone to sudden acts of violence (the pigeon shooting, also the incident with the dining chair in season 2) is very striking. It was also nice to see her being kinder to poor little Sally, though poignant at the same time, as she unloads her disappointed romantic fantasies (Don didn't quite measure up after all) onto the kid.
Carla the maid reappeared, was thoroughly put-upon and never even got a thank you (though she did get $5 and maybe she would rather have that anyway, as a thank you from Betty's friend - whose name I forget - is probably not worth having).
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Pete Campbell lost any Brownie points he might have gained from being found reading Ebony in his office and from giving Peggy some very sound advice in the previous episode, which she sadly ignored. In fact, Pete is thoroughly back in the 'what a little bastard' column. First, he rapes a girl (because yes, there was no violence involved, but I do think it was rape, though no one at the time would have) and then he blames it on his wife for leaving him all alone. What a total little s**t.
I suppose it was his turn to be a s**t this week. It was Don's turn last week to take out his frustrations on women - first on Peggy and then on Betty. In fact, there's no two ways about it, the men in this show are a bunch of utter bastards.
Interesting, though - rounded characters in a way so few characters are on TV, and with not an anachronistic attitude between them.
I would love to see them all get their comeuppance when the show ends for good, but I suppose if it's true to what we've had so far, that won't happen. Would be nice, though, if it did. Possibly, there is loads of Mad Men fanfic out there, where Betty reads Betty Friedan or Marilyn French and throws Don out of the house for good and Peggy ends up as boss of Sterling Cooper, who knows?
Another good thing about this episode - Joan! Yay! for Joan. I really missed her last week and hope she finds her way back to Sterling Cooper soon. The place just isn't the same without her.
Speaking of the Sterling Cooper office, I wonder what happened to the secretary who had that little 'accident' in the mini-tractor? Not seen the character since, but am wondering if Lane-Price secretly gave her a raise for saving him from Bombay.