Mad Men.

I don't think Don's comments were intended as meaning he personally found her attractive (i.e. she was his type of woman). I think they were more like him being supportive of her and telling she is an attractive woman so shouldn't think she'll be left single for long. Let's face it, if Don really wanted Peggy, he'd've had her by now! :eek:;)

I think Don was forthcoming about his past to Peggy partly because he trusts her over pretty much everyone else but also because his drinking is getting the better of him and he's losing control (a recurring theme across this series). Last week we saw him in bed with a chambermaid who called him 'Dick' - obviously how he'd introduced himself to her. So I didn't find that moment last night that surprising - indeed, I'd say it was very much in character for who Don is and where he's at right now.

But each to their own! :)
 
I agree - Peggy was treated cruelly and casually by Pete and had an immense shock - imagine giving birth, thinking you'd just had a bad sandwich! She fought back after her mental breakdown and had to work against convention and the bias of her family to get to be a copywriter. I don't believe that she was motivated by bitterness towarRAB Pete but rather by the feeling instilled by the priest that she should confess (the apocalyptic feeling of this episode was so strong), and that the truth would set her free.

I think the ambition was just starting to flicker in Joan when she had the script-reading duties but was snuffed out too cruelly before it had the chance to get strong enough.

For me the crisscrossing journeys of Peggy and Joan were summed up when Don returned to the office. Joan called him "Mr Draper" and took his hat and coat. Peggy came out of her large office to greet him as "Don", almost an equal.
 
I can think of a couple of pretty prominent reasons.....

Joking aside, if you judge any of the characters by todays standarRAB then they leave a lot to be desired ~ Don is hardly husband of the year (and a charlatan to boot), Roger's a lech, Peggy abandoned her baby (as far as we now), Ken is a sleaze and where would you even start with Pete?...

Personally I can't see anything 'creepy' about Sal ~ I can see someone struggling with their sexuality in a time when to be openly homosexual was extremely difficult, and trying (with limited success) to fit into the expected social conventions of the time. His treatment of his wife was dismissive, but nothing along the lines of how we've seen Don, Roger and Pete treat their wives so far. At least he's not going to be seeing another woman behind her back, unlike every other married man on the show ;)

And in Joan we have a woman getting ahead any way she can in a pre-feminism patriachy where everyone (other women as well as men) is a threat. Her speech to Peggy a few weeks back about playing the men at their own game very subtley pointed to the difficulty of making it on merit alone in an environment where the women are polarised as being a 'Jackie' or a 'Marilyn'.

The characterisation in this show is very finely tuned, and perfectly reflects the hypocrisy and social constraints of an age where seemingly anything goes, but actually people are very limited in the true extent of their personal freedom. There's not one charcter so clumsily written as to be 'all bad' or 'all good' ~ that's the genius of the writing.
 
What will fascinate me, if she is, is seeing which way Pete will jump. The point of the fight was to show that his feelings run deep towarRAB Peggy and that will make him want to stand by her but at the same time there's a spoilt competitive little boy in there who is going to look for the main chance and let her manage as best she can on her own. Few social issues have turned around so much in so short a time. It really was a different world.
 
I hope not, Joan is lovely and she's much too good for Don! It would only end in tears. I'm probably one of the few women who watch Mad Men who don't find him attractive and don't particularly like him as a character either. I'd much rather she got back together with Roger :)
 
Oooh, how good was last nights episode??!! Best one yet, IMO.

LOVE that Sal finally got a decent storyline ~ I've been wondering for a while what they planned to do with him, as it's not the type of show to leave anything to waste, and his sexuality + recent 'marriage' (is she blind? surely she knows?) was a ticking time-bomb. I love how he's subtly written,just enough to make you wonder ('pop an aspirin in the vase, they'll last longer!' ;))

Well done Betty for vomming in Don's new car ~ should have aimed it directly at him, though. And Jimmy showed a whole different side to himself ~ a lot more astute than I gave him credit for, and interesting how he referred to himslef and Betty as the 'kiRAB' ~ didn't her therapist say something last series about how she was essentially a little girl?

So much packed into this one, I didn't motice till later that Pete was missing, and Peggy barely featured.

Nore to New Girl: getting on the wrong side of Joan and letting Roger think he's in with a chance is bound not to backfire in any way shape or form. Good call. But hey, you don't need advice because you're all of twenty years old. Best of luck, missy!
:)
 
Probably because it's the set in the early sixties.

I very much doubt that somebody just 'flicked a switch' on 31st December 1959 and made everyone stop dressing dour and start dressing hip and trendy overnight! :rolleyes:
 
Clearly if you prefer to subscribe to that explanation of Don's use of the phrase 'You people', that's fine.

But it really isn't the only explanation. Just the most obvious one.

If Don despised Sal's sexuality, why not just sack him when he had the chance? Why instead, as diary_room points out, promote him? It rather seems like you are imposing a logic dictated by the social morals of the time onto this, rather than looking at who the characters are, what they've said and done before and what point they're at emotionally in the story.

For me, Mad Men is heavily layered and, for that reason, I just can't buy such a simple interpretation.

But each to their own! ;):)
 
ONE of the things that makes Mad Men so magnificent is that even tiny snippets of conversation/action can have a powerful meaning later.

Reading your post about the Brits' dismissive comment: "He never could hold his liquor" took me straight back to the scene when he first met them in the bar. Duck was insistant he didn't want a drink that night but was persuaded to by his guests. At the time I saw it as a sign of Duck's weakness and the Brit's insensitivity. (Perfectly understandable though because in that world and at that time you would be expected to drink).

Now I'm thinking, that guy knew exactly what he was doing. He knew Duck couldn't take his drink yet still 'forced' him to - why? Was there always some plan to get a deal done with Duck, knowing it would Duck would implode?

PS I'm joining all the others who are going back to Season 1 on DVD to get their fix!
 
Does anyone know if tonight's Mad Men 1/13 on BBC4 is a repeat of the last series? Too much to hope it's new, even RadioTimes.com doesn't bother to tell us.

parthena
 
I think Don cared about Rachel Mecken but she did get married and Jewish woman of that era tended to stick it out no matter what. Don and Betty together again, perhaps, but say in about 20 years.

Whilst on the subject. Were Rachel Mencken and the woman who moved into Don and Betty's neighbourhood in Series 1, the one who had the son transfixed on Betty, anyway, were they sisters? I may have completely lost the plot here but seem to remember that perhaps they were. Can any of you true fans on here enlighten me?
 
Tell you what i love the cigarette paraphenalia, I love that little dome thing in Don's office where when you open it it has like a circle of cigarettes to choose from. I've tried googling, I really want one.

Also, the Region 1 DVD Packaging is immense if you havent seen it.
 
I remember Pete's mother telling him that his father used to call him and his brother "Salt and Pepper" and Pete making a face at this. It seemed clear that the brother "Bud" was the favourite and this has always rankled.

I'm watching my CRAB of previous seasons and have just seen the one with Chauncey. That's made me cry again! I can never forgive Duck for that.
 
Yes, the therapists number ~ hence she knew that Don had been talking to her therapist about her, and vice versa, leading to the wonderful scene with Betty on the psych couch "planting" comments about Don's infidelity, knowing that they would get back to him.
 
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