Comments on: Harpy Televisual Society: “Mad Men” Season Finale

By: Hill Rat

Hill Rat — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:34:27 +0000

@BeckySharper

I know this is late, but I’m not sure how they can bring Sal back because SCDP took the Lucky Strike account with them and Sal was fired at the the behest of the Lucky Strike guy.

By: PennyA

PennyA — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:48:18 +0000

I am! I’d love to see the struggles of the start-up firm, and the tensions that are sure to arise in such close quarters. Not to mention a chance of seeing some people come into their own for real, Joan and Peggy most of all. They have a golden opportunity to create a space for themselves and I want to see them do it.

By: aspiringexpatriate

aspiringexpatriate — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:09:26 +0000

@ciji: I’m not sure it’s not that she doesn’t want to pay the price, it’s that for some insane reason she thinks she isn’t capable of standing on her own. I can’t help but think of Grandpa Gene chatting with Sally: “Don’t ever let her tell you you can’t do anything. Your grandmother worked for …” and that’s where I can’t remember the line. Betty was raised in the forties/fifties but apparently never saw or understood the wartime spirit of everyone working to earn their keep and whathaveyou.

By: ceejeemcbeegee

ceejeemcbeegee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:03:45 +0000

[Betty] gets another man to take care of her and [Henry] gets a beautiful woman he can place on a pedestal?

Exactly. See, Betty wants independence, but she doesn’t want to pay the price.

By: Cimorene

Cimorene — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:48:55 +0000

I think Betty’s relationship with Henry Francis is less about giving up one controlling dude for another equally shite controlling dude, and more about her negotiating this tension between getting taken care of (what she knows) and being independent (what she secretly/unconsciously wants). She cannot recognize that she wants independence, because it’s not a concept that she’s even aware of as a possibility for her existence. Like, it wasn’t until I got to college that I realized that I Like Girls, but in retrospect I realized that I Liked Girls before leaving my hometown–it’s just that Liking Girls wasn’t within the realm of possibilities until I got to college. I think Betty’s relationship with independence is similar–she wants independence, once she has enough consciousness raising done she’ll be able to look back at her relationship with Don as defined by a lack of–and desire for–her own autonomy. But she isn’t there yet.

Henry Francis isn’t living with her, he hasn’t cheated on her, he has only been attentive. He’s all the good parts of an early relationship, when everyone’s on their best behavior. He’s giving her freedom, because obviously she’s married to someone else and lives with him and has kids with him. So she’s not under his direct rule. But he offers her to specter of male authority and comfort and direction, without the suffocation that she got from her father and Don. Or, not yet anyway. It’s coming, I think. But I also think that breaking away from Don was something she tried to do once before, before another man was there to take his place. I think she’d be trying to leave him even if Henry wasn’t there to catch her. Henry’s just speeding up the process. And also will be an interesting, although surely hard to watch and painful, plot line next season.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:15:23 +0000

@PhDork: I think they have to make a pretty big time shift. It’s almost necessary to keep the show fresh, and the temptation to roll out the revelations one by one is going to be irresistible for Weiner & Co.

Also, none of us are interested in watching Sterling Cooper Draper Price built itself from the ground up, or watching the characters adjust to their new realties. It’s going to be much more exciting to be thrust into their new reality in media res, as it were.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:05:23 +0000

Gawd, I hope y’all are wrong about Henry Francis.

And while Jon Hamm is absurdly handsome and charismatic, I’m not terribly interested in Don anymore as a character. I’m pretty sure I’ve got his number and can predict his responses going forward. The only time he’s interesting is when he’s acting, not just REacting to others. And not just because the dialogue is less opaque. Especially because dudes like Don are phasing out as we move into the 60s, he’s becoming what I refer to as a “tent-pole” character; the normal-ish straight white dude who stands in the center of a circle of a bunch of characters, weirdos, and loose cannons. He’s the central figure, but we’re too busy looking around the perimeter of the tent, where the action is, to be interested in him.

And now I’m wondering, will S4 start in ‘65? All the other seasons had a time leap between them. That’s a big shift, zeitgeist-wise.

By: pedimd

pedimd — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:48:35 +0000

I don’t think that Henry Francis is as evil as some of you are making him out to be. In his mind, his taking control is helping Betty and making sure that she’s not worried. And that’s what Betty seems to want. I think she is divorcing Don because she thinks DON was the problem. She thinks that now that she will be with someone who is not Don, everything will be fine. Henry and Betty are likely heading for disaster without throwing anything nefarious or abusive into the mix.

By: bluebears

bluebears — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:33:57 +0000

@Becky: its not that I think Don should be written as perfect or non-fucked up but what irritates me is that he is written (in my opinion) as a pretty straight ahead out for himself asshole but then its like the show can’t help itself and has to make it known that he’s a good guy deep down. Not that people can’t have bad and good qualities but Don’s good qualities always seem so tacked on to me. Not true to the character. In my personal opinion. If that makes sense.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:15:26 +0000

Don is fascinating, both because of the writing and because of Jon Hamm’s portrayal of him–which is undoubtedly why the producers cast Hamm in the role.

Is Don sympathetic? Sometimes, but rarely. Who cares? If the protagonists are just as fucked up as the rest of us, that makes them a hell of a lot more interesting to watch. Matthew Weiner knows this, which is why the show is so good.