Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 12:32 PM
Tue Nov 10
73 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/12/09
10/12/09
I love this show beyond words, and this episode really cemented for me the correlation between the civil rights issues of the day and those of now. When Betty says about how maybe it just isn't time for civil rights, it is eerily reminiscent of the reaction of the current government about how the gay rights movement should perhaps wait because it's just 'too much, too soon.' We know how the Vietnam War didn't prevent the Civil Rights Movement to take root, and I think the notion that what is happening overseas right now, and the healthcare situation, should in no way impact our desires for equal rights in our times as well. Mad Men is wonderful to be so prescient about this.
Another thing that really worked on so many levels takes me back to what someone said downthread, that these people are middle-class conservatives. But the truth is, these people aren't arch-right conservatives; they are much more centrist than their contemporaries, and the conversation at the fundraiser amongst these so-called Republicans about how deplorable segregation is reinforces that these people really are on the left side of the issue- that is what makes Don's homophobic remark and Betty's apathy towards civil rights so deplorable, is that these are our left of mainstream proxies.
Finally, I must say that although I am disappointed that Peggy has slipped into the background, I love the idea that Sterling Cooper will see the walls fall in around them. Don's disappointment to Conrad, Sal's dismissal and the continuation of the series-long struggle with Lucky Strike: nothing is permanent, and I look very much forward to seeing where these people are in 1968 and 1970. I hope the series continues to skip years, because I want very much to see the fall of Don, and the rise of Peggy and Betty and Joan and Sal and everyone else who is struggling to be modern while being held back by those who still think the world is 1958 when it is not.
10/17/09
10/17/09
10/17/09
10/17/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
In the background, the country's collective fantasy of its own clean, white, straight and narrow image was being shattered thru its own violence and cruelty. And only more violence to shake the country to its core is being foreshadowed.
These themes are highlighted masterfully by the art direction - such attention to period detail allows the viewer (and many of us jezeposters) to be swept into the fantasy. Oh, the costumes! The sets! We collectively swoon, then recoil in shock as the grim reality of the era sets in - this could never happen today! Alas - fantasy is timeless, and we carry our own still.
As with all good art, we are allowed to at once participate in and witness from a distance the lessons being taught and learned by the characters as their own development unfolds.
This episode, however hits shockingly close to home...
10/12/09
When Don alluded to Suzanne about what a coincidence he "ran into" her while running, it just made me laugh. Carlton told Don she ran early in the mornings. It's kind of DISAPPOINTING seeing how unsmooth and fake and phony Don is when we know the whole story. It really annoyed me. I just feel like he is seducing her because his work-life is going so terribly and he's losing control. He needs to be in control of something, so he embarks on an affair! He hasn't had one of those since Rachel, really.
But yeah, the entire episode I kept on being disappointed by every character. Which is great because it's a new feeling from this show, but wow, it was so palpable.
10/12/09
You know what's not disappointing though? Whats that gleaming by the noble TransFat moniker? Why, tis a star! Yes my grey brothers and sisters, you too can one day break the chains of obscurity if you believe in the power of SmartAssery and well placed Simpson's allusions.
I am super soaker psyched, thank you editors!
10/13/09
10/17/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
[www.atmos.umd.edu]
I hope so! The feminists are coming!
10/12/09
10/12/09
Betty is an a-hole
Pete is an a-hole
Roger is an a-hole
Peggy will probably turn into an a-hole one day, too.
Sometimes I wonder why I watch this show when almost no one is worth rooting for. I guess the same could be said about The Sopranos, though.
Does this mean that most of us are probably a-holes, too?
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/17/09
Yes, characters like Carla have it way worse. And I think the show makes that apparent, that their struggles are coupled with a privilege and a blindness to that privilege other people don't have. But the Drapers, especially Betty, are extremely stuck. Women at that time were just starting to realize what they could do, to carve out the choices that we now take for granted, and don't understand why they didn't just do what we can do now with ease.
And let's not forget that both Don and Betty are extremely screwed up emotionally. All the money in the world can't free you from that if you dont' know what's wrong and have no outlet for it.
The 60's were about huge social upheavals at every level and this particular deconstruction of the levels of privilege is really interesting.
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
I guess people at SC are just glorified prostitutes.
10/12/09
And AMC will show it on Sunday, November 22, 2009.
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
I almost cried during the Don/Sal scene and clapped when Betty threw the money box.
We're not supposed to like the characters all the time. But they are supposed to act in a way the inspires, angers, sympathize with the public. For me, this was one of the best episodes
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
I think that is what the problem is for me. They do it too much and in every episode. In the 1st and a good portion of the 2nd season they were able to balance it where you could see the parallels, but they weren't beating you over the head with it every second. And the symbolism isn't even as subtle anymore.
This season is really off, I'm just hoping it doesn't get worse.
10/12/09
10/12/09
In other words it's fine to be an asshole to women, but don't be an asshole to the gays.
Everybody swooned over Don when he was womanizing and treating his wife like a child, but the minute he scolds Sal he's a jerk and people won't be able to look at him the same. Interesting.
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
Exactly! When Don is at work, he's about the work and what it takes to get it done, other than that he really doesn't care too much about what his colleagues do.
10/12/09