Would you like cheese with that?

[sistermagpie]

I've been having these vague thoughts lately on "realistic" drama, and how it is or isn't realistic, or how real life does or doesn't get considered realistic. And seeing a couple of comments on the last couple of episodes of Mad Men spurred me to actually write some of them down

Comments

[slytherincesss]

I can never discuss TV eloquently or in a cerebral manner (I wish I could!), but it bothers me how often proper names are spoken on TV shows.

Betty: Don, you shouldn't smoke in bed. It might light the bedspread on fire.

Don: I know that, Betty. I'm being careful and am responsibly using a large ashtray.

Betty: You never listen to me, Don. What if the bedspread caught fire, and then spread to the bedroom and the hallway and down to the kids' room? What would you do then, Don?

Don: Betty, I would simply place dry-cleaning bags over the childrens' heads and bodies, and usher them through the fire to safety, and have them wait on the curb outside of the house. I can't believe we're having this conversation.

Betty: Whatever was in those dry-cleaning bags had better not be on the floor of my closet, Don. I don't appreciate how you dismiss my things as if they don't matter and don't need to be respected. Really, Don!

Don: Betty, I'm going to the office.

I notice this trend a lot in TV shows and it just makes me squirm. I don't call my husband by his first name every time we exchange words. In fact, I'm apt to only use it when he can't hear me and I'm trying to get his attention. Otherwise, we know who we are talking to and don't need to keep repeating the other person's name throughout the conversation. I'm far more likely to call my husband and kids with a nickname or a familiar (honey, babe, etc). I have always felt that using proper names too much feels stilted and really very faux. The worst offender I can think of offhand is Nip/Tuck. Jolie Richardson's character says "Sean" in almost every sentence of dialogue she has with Dylan Walsh's character. It really got to be grating.

I thought exactly the same thing about Don and Peggy's hand squeeze - it was a moment of a character who is uncomfortable with any kind of overt anything choosing to overtly make a caring gesture, and it came across as awkward and stilted because it was. The scene with Anna didn't bother me - in fact, I thought he was going to turn it into the Samsonite campaign. As for the diary, my father was very very much like Don Draper (except not as kind as Don, because, come on, Don can be kind) kept a diary like that, and I was particularly amused at Roger dictating his memoirs, because my father used to do exactly the same thing. It was his . . . dlog? Dictaphone log/diary/journal. No way in hell would you ever catch me doing a recorded diary. It's too incriminating! LJ is best it's going to get for me as far as a diary goes.

[sistermagpie]

LOL! I remember reading an article once that said that specifically on Soap Operas they used the names all the time to the point where the actors found it hilarious. Because of course on the soap they wanted people to be able to jump in and follow the story so if you kept repeating the characters' names people would learn them more quickly.

I, too, thought that vision was going to turn into the Samsonite campaign--which would have been pretty awful. It's one of the reasons I can really accept it as a device because it wasn't about pulling everything together in a neat little bow.

And yeah, Don totally can be kind. It really does seem right that Roger would dictate and Don would write in a diary.