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Oct. 18th, 2010 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quigonejinnI HAVE OPINIONS ABOUT THE MAD MEN SEASON FINALE.
Let me begin by saying: I would put up with a lot to see Peggy and Joan talking about the douchebaggery of entitled men at the work place. I would put up with so much it isn't funny. And especially for an exchange like that, where Peggy is righteously outraged, and Joan is amused and a little annoyed herself but simpatico and sympathetic and. That would make an episode worth it for me. Fuck that. It would make a season for me, let alone an episode.
Also, the expression on Don's face when Ken Cosgrove puts his foot down about work-life separation made me scream with laughter. Let me tell you, oh my God. Never mind the bit later on with Ken just being straight-up awesome and a mensch about how much credit Peggy deserved for nailing Blue Topaz, as that was just the capper on the deal. JUST THE EXPRESSION ON EVERYONE'S FACE AHAHAHAHAH OH GOD I COULD WATCH THAT FOR HOURS FOR THE SHEER GLEE.
Also, the compare-contrast between that scene and Peggy getting Blue Topaz -- ways of getting business are changing. It isn't just the good ol' boy network anymore. Smarts, initiative, a wide circle of friends, and not so much golf with the wife's father. (God, I love that line about not being Pete. Also, have I just mentioned how much I love Ken telling everybody in that room to DIAF and knowing he can get away with it because he is 30% of the firm's business.)
Also, I loved Betty in this episode. I loved her so hard. Yes, she is crazy, and yes, she is Not A Nice Person, but goddamn, she is true to her bones. And she tries. And I loved that final scene, with Don and Betty, and it's the end of that story. It's the end of the 50s. It's the end of an era. It's the end of thinking that Don could ever change, and it's the end of Betty thinking that life would be perfect if only she had the perfect man and the perfect house and the perfect, because now, she knows in her obscure, inarticulate way that it always ends in the empty house, alone, lying in her daughter's stripped-down bed, then standing in the kitchen and listening to Don in love, and never, ever, ever being able to talk about how she feels. Because she can't.
If that had been the last scene of the last episode of Mad Men ever, I would have been happy with that.
(But it wasn't, because Weiner is an ass, and we are never to forget that this is Don's Story.)
Which leads me to the one big thing from this episode failed to move me, which was the Don - Megan thing. It just irritates the fuck out of me on so many levels -- there is the in-story stuff, inthat Megan the character says stupid things that annoy the fuck out of me, and that in scenes with her, Don says stupid things that annoy the fuck out of me. And then, there is the sort of meta reason, in that it's sort of what the writers (probably, but maybe Weiner?) thinks is a cute, charming, infatuation style romance, but ends up just being saccharine and trite and annoying. It's lazy. But what really gets my goat about the Megan/Don relationship is that the writer(s) Megan is basically a prop to show us Don's failings as a human being. She has no depth. No hint of real, actual character. Even the little bits that we find out about her -- she is French-Canadian! She has a family! Um, she had a roommate! When the only depth to a character are the semi-lies you tell in order to get closer to Don, it's hard to buy any of it as real, actual, substantive writerly work. It's all just. Props. Little hand-gestures, rather than the real stuff.
And it's not that the shit takes time to develop in the narrative language of Mad Men. How long was it before Don Draper was a 3D character? What about Peggy? When this show is invested in a character, it doesn't take a lot. Just a gesture. Just a scene. Or even a shot. Think about the shot with Pete sitting on the couch with Trudie curled up around him. Think about the scene with Betty in the backyard with the gun.
Maybe there is ~ * point * ~ that we're only seeing Megan as a caricature and that once she becomes a real character, Don will get tired of it all, but in order to sell that plausibly after the whole season of REPETITION IS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!1 horseshit with Don, I need a little more to buy it. A little tip of the hand, if the total fucking saccharine headtrip of watching Don get it on with a 25 year old in a patriarchal fantasy?
So yes, basically: the convo between Don and Peggy would have annoyed the fuck out of me if it hadn't been followed up by one of the greatest, most glorious minute and a half of fanservice that I've ever been privileged to witness. Oh God, I love Joan so much. Oh God, I covet Peggy's dress in that scene so hard.
PS: THE FILTHY LOOK THAT JOYCE GAVE HARRY CRANE OH MY GOD I LOVE IT
PS FUCK ME JOAN AND PEGGY TALKING ABOUT CRAP ASSHOLES AT THE OFFICEPLACE AFTER A SEASON OF WATCHING DON SWAN ABOUT IN HIS WHITE MALE PRIVILEGE BOOHOO MANPAIN? CATHARTIC.
PS: THE FILTHY LOOK THAT JOYCE GAVE HARRY CRANE OH MY GOD I LOVE IT
Courtesydafnap, this post basically explains why my heart hurts for Betty, and why I love her character, and why I respect the writers for doing what they've done to her.
Let me begin by saying: I would put up with a lot to see Peggy and Joan talking about the douchebaggery of entitled men at the work place. I would put up with so much it isn't funny. And especially for an exchange like that, where Peggy is righteously outraged, and Joan is amused and a little annoyed herself but simpatico and sympathetic and. That would make an episode worth it for me. Fuck that. It would make a season for me, let alone an episode.
Also, the expression on Don's face when Ken Cosgrove puts his foot down about work-life separation made me scream with laughter. Let me tell you, oh my God. Never mind the bit later on with Ken just being straight-up awesome and a mensch about how much credit Peggy deserved for nailing Blue Topaz, as that was just the capper on the deal. JUST THE EXPRESSION ON EVERYONE'S FACE AHAHAHAHAH OH GOD I COULD WATCH THAT FOR HOURS FOR THE SHEER GLEE.
Also, the compare-contrast between that scene and Peggy getting Blue Topaz -- ways of getting business are changing. It isn't just the good ol' boy network anymore. Smarts, initiative, a wide circle of friends, and not so much golf with the wife's father. (God, I love that line about not being Pete. Also, have I just mentioned how much I love Ken telling everybody in that room to DIAF and knowing he can get away with it because he is 30% of the firm's business.)
Also, I loved Betty in this episode. I loved her so hard. Yes, she is crazy, and yes, she is Not A Nice Person, but goddamn, she is true to her bones. And she tries. And I loved that final scene, with Don and Betty, and it's the end of that story. It's the end of the 50s. It's the end of an era. It's the end of thinking that Don could ever change, and it's the end of Betty thinking that life would be perfect if only she had the perfect man and the perfect house and the perfect, because now, she knows in her obscure, inarticulate way that it always ends in the empty house, alone, lying in her daughter's stripped-down bed, then standing in the kitchen and listening to Don in love, and never, ever, ever being able to talk about how she feels. Because she can't.
If that had been the last scene of the last episode of Mad Men ever, I would have been happy with that.
(But it wasn't, because Weiner is an ass, and we are never to forget that this is Don's Story.)
Which leads me to the one big thing from this episode failed to move me, which was the Don - Megan thing. It just irritates the fuck out of me on so many levels -- there is the in-story stuff, inthat Megan the character says stupid things that annoy the fuck out of me, and that in scenes with her, Don says stupid things that annoy the fuck out of me. And then, there is the sort of meta reason, in that it's sort of what the writers (probably, but maybe Weiner?) thinks is a cute, charming, infatuation style romance, but ends up just being saccharine and trite and annoying. It's lazy. But what really gets my goat about the Megan/Don relationship is that the writer(s) Megan is basically a prop to show us Don's failings as a human being. She has no depth. No hint of real, actual character. Even the little bits that we find out about her -- she is French-Canadian! She has a family! Um, she had a roommate! When the only depth to a character are the semi-lies you tell in order to get closer to Don, it's hard to buy any of it as real, actual, substantive writerly work. It's all just. Props. Little hand-gestures, rather than the real stuff.
And it's not that the shit takes time to develop in the narrative language of Mad Men. How long was it before Don Draper was a 3D character? What about Peggy? When this show is invested in a character, it doesn't take a lot. Just a gesture. Just a scene. Or even a shot. Think about the shot with Pete sitting on the couch with Trudie curled up around him. Think about the scene with Betty in the backyard with the gun.
Maybe there is ~ * point * ~ that we're only seeing Megan as a caricature and that once she becomes a real character, Don will get tired of it all, but in order to sell that plausibly after the whole season of REPETITION IS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!1 horseshit with Don, I need a little more to buy it. A little tip of the hand, if the total fucking saccharine headtrip of watching Don get it on with a 25 year old in a patriarchal fantasy?
So yes, basically: the convo between Don and Peggy would have annoyed the fuck out of me if it hadn't been followed up by one of the greatest, most glorious minute and a half of fanservice that I've ever been privileged to witness. Oh God, I love Joan so much. Oh God, I covet Peggy's dress in that scene so hard.
PS: THE FILTHY LOOK THAT JOYCE GAVE HARRY CRANE OH MY GOD I LOVE IT
PS FUCK ME JOAN AND PEGGY TALKING ABOUT CRAP ASSHOLES AT THE OFFICEPLACE AFTER A SEASON OF WATCHING DON SWAN ABOUT IN HIS WHITE MALE PRIVILEGE BOOHOO MANPAIN? CATHARTIC.
PS: THE FILTHY LOOK THAT JOYCE GAVE HARRY CRANE OH MY GOD I LOVE IT
Courtesy
dafnap, this post basically explains why my heart hurts for Betty, and why I love her character, and why I respect the writers for doing what they've done to her.
