The more we get to know Don Draper — the man, the constructed myth, the self-destructive legend — the less surprising it is that he returns again and again to an Old Fashioned.
Mad Men always brought Don to the brink of real change, only to yank him back again. He gives up drinking, gives in to drinking, gives it up and comes back to it all over again. He expresses interest in being a more involved parent, then blinks in surprise when his daughter Sally appears to have grown up without him noticing. Once Betty becomes sick of his shit and presses for a divorce, he trades her for a more modern version of the model wife see: Megan — which also ends in divorce.
He mentors Peggy, more by accident than design. He falls apart, and stumbles back up, and crumbles all over again, waiting for someone — usually, some woman — to come by and put him back together. In the very last scene of the series, Don has run away to California — his place of choice to do drugs with hippies and escape himself — to try to find some semblance of peace.
In interviews afterward, Weiner was less ambiguous than the show about the fact that Don created the ad, which confirms a truth about Don the show never shied away from: Here is a man who wants to be better, but in times of trouble he will always go back to what he already knows.
It's freedom. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you're doing is okay. You are okay. All Don Draper wanted was to be happy. But all Don knew was how to create facsimiles of happiness — and so he never found a way to make it real for himself.
While Don spun his wheels, Pete threw tantrums, and Roger pickled himself to distraction, Peggy was busy getting shit done. Eventually she carved out her own place in the relentlessly misogynistic advertising industry, by sheer force of will and undeniably sharper instincts.
If she were around today, she might even deride affirmative action as an unnecessary act of pity that denigrates the value of hard work. But by the simple virtue of being a woman who pushed past a constant onslaught of sexist bullshit to get what she wanted, Peggy grew into a force that dared men to reckon with her brilliance, and smirked when she got the better of them. Watching the first episode of Mad Men reveals exactly how little Mad Men knew — or even cared to know — about Joan Holloway.
When someone pissed her off, her eyes flashed fury, foreshadowing the righteous wrath to come. Not everyone's a critic, but everyone's got smart-alecky remarks. But here's the thing — there's also a legitimate case to be made for loathing Mad Men.
It's a show that appeals directly to those who like pretentiousness, not vigorous confrontation of our time and issues, and that love of pretentiousness tends to ruin our enjoyment of TV that doesn't aim for long bouts of melancholia and existentialist angst over the meaning of an ad campaign from the s.
Television, mainly network TV, spent decades in the wilderness, in terms of serious attention. Not for them the reasonable view that television reflects our preoccupations, changes and neuroses, even in the most innocuous of dramas and comedies. Not for them the idea that silly TV can actually subvert orthodoxy and open up some closed minds.
Bourgeois concerns. They got it in Mad Men. All the characters are on a journey to a better version of themselves, just like in those pretentious but mediocre novels. What they represent is a searing and honest exploration of the conflict between how we perceive the world, and how the world sees us, and how the dichotomy of heaven and hell depends on the beholder.
The road to Paradise is fraught with peril. It could be a Booker Prize-listed novel, one forgotten about after the initial fuss. In Mad Men's company, the raw, livid anger of a TV show Boss is seen as inferior drama and the meticulously precise nihilism of The Walking Dead as mere entertainment.
Breaking Bad seems kooky. Sally finds the newspaper article Pauline was reading earlier, and becomes too frightened to sleep after reading it. Sally confesses to Pauline that she read the article and Pauline gives her half a Seconal pill.
In the morning when Betty and Henry arrive home, Sally is asleep under the couch referencing the Richard Speck murders where one of the women survived by hiding under the bed. Here Sally observes what it is like to live in Don's world, where she acts as Roger Sterling 's "date", handing him business cards and encouraging him to talk to prospective clients.
Later in the evening Sally excuses herself to go the bathroom and accidentally walks in on Marie performing oral sex on Roger. Later, on the phone with Glen, Sally describes the city as "dirty". Confused, Sally becomes angry at Megan, accusing her of lying to her. Realizing that Betty told Sally in order to stir up conflict, Megan tells Don just to forget it, because it's just going to give Betty the satisfaction she wants.
Sally overhears this and pretends that the revelation meant nothing to get back at Betty. Towards the end of the season Sally spends the weekend with Don and Megan after refusing to go skiing with her family. When neither Megan nor Don can take Sally to school on Monday, they allow her to stay in the apartment. Sally makes arrangements to meet with Glen. Panicked, she flees to home and receives comfort from Betty, who gives her a hot water bottle to soothe her stomach and reassures her that it means "everything is working.
As Sally progresses into young adulthood, she witnesses several disturbing events, such as in season 5 when she sees Marie Calvet, her stepmother Megan's mother, fellating Roger Sterling during a business dinner, and, most disturbingly, her own father having sex with his neighbor in season 6. Don's outright denial of the nature of the encounter alienates him from Sally, and, resentful of her parents, Sally decides to attend boarding school.
While at school, Sally becomes a troublemaker, smoking constantly, sneaking alcohol onto campus, and dueling with golf clubs with her friends. By the end of the sixth season, Don decides to be more honest with his children, starting with showing them the now dilapidated whorehouse where he grew up.
The choice to be truthful makes an impact on Sally and she begins to forgive her father for his transgressions by the beginning of the seventh season. However, she still objects to Don's decisions in life, telling her father that she does not want to be anything like her parents. As the series draws to a close, Sally faces further complications of growing up. Glen decides to join the Army and fight in Vietnam, causing a frustrated Sally to yell at him and express disdain over the possibility of his killing of innocent children and bystanders.
Sally later expresses regret over her outburst and, through tears, tells Glen's mother that she is sorry and wants to say goodbye to Glen before he leaves for boot camp. Sally learns from Henry that her mother Betty is dying from lung cancer. Sally makes a surprise visit to the Francis household, where Betty gives Sally a letter that she tells Sally to read after her death. Shortly afterward, back at her dorm room, Sally goes against orders and reads the letter anyway.
In the letter, Betty includes instructions and a picture of herself to direct the funeral home how to prepare her. She tells Sally that she loves her, resulting in Sally breaking down in tears.
The letter also says that Betty used to worry about Sally not "fitting in" with everybody else, but realizes now that conventional American society is about to have a crash course with reality that someone like Sally better realizes than most. Later, upon learning Betty wants to send Bobby and Gene to their uncle, Sally decides to cancel her planned trip to Madrid and serve as a maternal figure to her brothers.
It is also implied that she will press for Henry to raise the boys after Betty's death, since she tells Don they should not be uprooted. The final image of Sally is of her washing dishes while Betty smokes at the kitchen table. Mad Men Wiki Explore. Mad Men Wiki Affiliates.
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