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New York, 9:25 AM
Thu Nov 12
67 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/10/09
She keeps being criticized for "having a life raft" Has everyone completely forgotten this was the early 60s and even her own family lawyer told her she'd be fucked with a capital F if she left him?
Not to mention the only way to divorce was to go to Reno?
She wants out and she's doing what it takes, perhaps she is just smart enough to see Harry as someone she can USE to get what she wants?
And the constant hatred for her mothering skills? I also think people are not looking at the show in the context of WHEN it was. Parents probably treated their children vastly differently then than they do now, from the stories my mother tells me [she was born in '59] Betty doesn't seem that far off.
The whole "self-esteem" movement and children being the center of the universe was still a ways off from when this show was set. #madmenseasonfinale
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So much tension. #madmenseasonfinale
11/09/09
Also, isn’t it great that the Sterling in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will be Roger, and not his father?
I think Don will end up happier for everything that has transpired this season. He will have a big exciting challenge in building a new agency where he is back in control; he might meet a woman with strength and tenacity and actually be in a healthy relationship with her instead of just screwing around with her behind Betty’s back. Does he deserve this happiness? Who knows? But one thing is certain in my mind…..things are gonna get real bad for Betty in this Henry Francis mess before they get better.
Oh and hey hey hey, the Joan Holloway Harris Pen of Power has returned! #madmenseasonfinale
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I think Lucky Strike is really a "big account for now" type thing. They'll use it to get started but once the ball starts rolling they'll hopefully pick up another big client. Perhaps a car company? Didn't car advertising start to skyrocket in the60's/70's? I say that completely unsourced and too lazy to research but something like that.
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Also, they probably knew he was pissed off at not getting the promotion (missing work, not showing up at the wedding, etc.) and guessed that he might be getting his clients together in order to jump ship anyway. Though Roger did call him a little shit at the bar in offended tones, which was awesome!
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They may not have consciously recognized that, but it's definitely going to be a factor in their future success. #madmenseasonfinale
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Trudy would bring a lovely bundt cake. #madmenseasonfinale
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But I just wanted to mention that I like how things are slowly changing for the women on the show: The boys were lost until Joan showed up. Peggy is valuable to Don and he finally had to admit it. Betty is learning to stand up to Don and take some control of her life, though if she continues her path to Henry Francis I'm not so sure she learned anything. It's interesting to watch this happen. #madmenseasonfinale
11/09/09
Betty is the only wild card. I fully believe she would excel as a political wife, but Henry Francis is such a wild card it remains to be seen how that will play out. #madmenseasonfinale
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"Because you're so good, and everyone else is baaaad. You're soooo hurt."
Pitch perfect. Yes Betty has been a victim of circumstance for most of her life. And yes she is in serious need of a nurturing adult relationship. But having a dickhead husband is no excuse to be an icy bitch towards your children (especially poor little Sally! *tear*).
Although her transgressions may not be as great as Don's, we see that he (though he may not show it externally) feels guilty about them. Meanwhile Betty and her selective memory uphold her stance of "I'm the victim".
Even if you're 100% team Betty, nobody likes a whiner (right Connie?)
11/09/09
While I don't agree with Don calling Betty a whore(not okay, Don, look who's talking), some of what he said was pretty much on the tip of my tongue at that moment, and when Betty threw him out of the house again, I could have slapped her. And I've NEVER been one to be on Don's side. I don't believe on choosing character's sides(Unless it's like Voldemort vs. Harry Potter or something clear cut like that). #madmenseasonfinale
11/09/09
Someone flamed me here, actually for me calling Betty out. Out of all of the women, she's the most educated. The most erudite. What does she choose? A trophy husband (as much as she, herself, is a Trophy Wife).
What she wants, is a perfect idyllic life. In suburbia, with fawning sycophantic friends and the perfect 2.5 kids and a dog. With a successful, father husband to take care of her.
Don, keeps trying to reinvent himself. Keeps philandering to try to see how life would be with another woman; instead of living one life. This relationship is the Breaking Bad of Mad Men They are both the bad guy.
And Carla raising the two eldest kids for six weeks? Will probably be the best and most life changing six weeks for the Draper Children. Too bad we are skipping to 1965. #madmenseasonfinale
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I love how Carla is portrayed but I wish they would show more of her outside the Draper household, i know i know she's not a main character but still. I get that they dont show much of her because she's supposed to be invisible but this is one character I would really love to know more about. #madmenseasonfinale
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While I read and agree with a lot of parts of the feminine mystique, I'd be more inclined to sympathize with Betty's "quiet desperation" if she hadn't played favorites and taken only the baby. I mean Carla's already practically living with the Drapers, why not just leave the baby? #madmenseasonfinale
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Most of all she certainly isn't reflective of all women in that era (were all women white middle class/upper class surburban women? And even within that demographic did they all have similar experiences). I don't think so.
Poor Betty, Yeah more like Poor Carla. #madmenseasonfinale
11/09/09
They're 60s parents, they don't assume they need to be there all the time cooing over their children.
Okay, I admit it, I have just loved Betty since the pigeon-shooting incident and I can't let go. I was once a Don-lover but it's been over for a long time.
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I dislike Betty for reasons not pertaining to her treatment of the kids but even from a material, not emotional, standpoint she basically pawns them off on Carla. #madmenseasonfinale
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He is one of those people who is married to work b/c it's where he's always in control, where he always has an answer for every problem and he's always the go-to guy who's sitting on top. Even in the scenes when Peggy, Roger and Pete were trying to humble him by making him ask them for things (instead of him just demanding and everyone hopping to it), he had dignity and strength and was cocksure because in the end, he knew he'd get what he wanted. At home, he's lost and angry and sad because nothing is turning out the way he expected them to. #madmenseasonfinale
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Don can be humble (even though I think he dies a little whenever he has to humble himself) when it's politically expedient for him. He wanted Pete, Roger and Peggy's buy-in on his idea, he was willing to step up and apologize.
With Betty, not so much. I think at heart he just doesn't respect her or see her as a woman with an interior life. He did seem to love her when they were just married - as he told Anna - but no more. And he doesn't realize he doesn't love her any more than she loves him. She's just the person who's there to take care of his physical needs and his children. His emotional needs, he fulfills elsewhere. #madmenseasonfinale
11/09/09
I like how you mentioned political expediency. And you're right that Don doesn't love Betty any more than Betty loves him. But change is always hard, and it's particularly difficult because now Don sees it more like his wife has rejected him for another man, rather than Don leaving her (emotionally) for another woman (the teacher). I'd like to think that Don finds it especially difficult because of the emotional damage wrought to the kids, but that would be attributing too much good parenting to Don. #madmenseasonfinale
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