mad world
I have now seen the new episodes of Mad Men!
Oh my god this show. Mostly I am just thrilled to find out what happened to these people since I last saw them - I was all "omg, Sally sounds like a grownup now! Joan had the baby! Roger became even more of a pointless douchebag of pointless douchebaggery!" But I am also thrilled because they are REALLY GOOD at using television to actually have some really interesting conversations, too.
They just did a whole episode about sexual violence that was REALLY GOOD.
I love that the obsession with the Richard Speck murders coloured the whole thing: it was such a well-done way of tying it all together. The weirdly fetishistic way the SCDP people were looking at the pictures and Betty's mum was talking about it... yes. Exactly. We have such a weird relationship to sexual violence, and we STILL DO. Using 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)' over the end credits was the perfect way of summing it up, too; the song might make people go ACK ACK ACK NO, but the messed up social stuff that gets thought processes like that going? ABSOLUTELY still around.
Which is why I love that they didn't have it just be about Dr Rapey and Joan. They were THERE - I am so glad she kicked him out and told him why; even without the raping her, she's totally right he's never understood or respected her - but the threat of violence in their breakup wasn't carried through, and that works better for me the more I think about it. Sexual violence isn't just the times violence actually happens: it's also all the times women worry about that, have that threat hanging over them, whether or not it actually happens. It's why the show Sally was watching was Mystery Date: those nurses' 'Mystery Date' was their rapist and murderer, and that's the reality pretty much every woman carries with her at all times, the reality Sally started to learn about this episode. I think it was very important Joan's mum was there, because she provided backup, in case Greg did get violent. Because Joan knew the potential for Greg to go all Don Draper Dream Sequence on her was there, because he'd been goddamn close to it before.
...aaand talking of, I also think it's very important that it was Don, the main character and someone who viewers know very well, who had such a creepy dream sequence. I like that we don't know how exactly how much of it was real: I think probably everything with the woman after the lift scene was in his head, but more importantly, it was pointing out that whatever was going on for Don with that? He went to 'mudering a woman' to express it. Sure, he almost-certainly only did so in his head, while feverish. But the stuff about the murders is where that comes from: some part of even this not-muderously-psychotic person's brain went there because there is a strong part of our culture that validates that, is titilated by that, glories in that. (I mean, how many times do TV shows have to linger lovingly on closeups of dead beautiful women? REALLY?) And Sally is completely right that that's GODDAMN SCARY.
I also like that Michael Ginsberg is the only SCPD person to really get that. He is the one who sees the fetishising of violence for what it is, and at first I thought that was just a "he's a Jew, he'll have only recently lost family to the concentration camps, of COURSE he doesn't find pictures of murdered people okay". But then they went further with it: he sees it, and he knows its power, and he uses that in his Cinderella pitch. He is seriously gunning for Don's job, and he's willing to use everything, and oh man that's going to be interesting. Especially with the way he is the male Peggy, and that she's going to have to deal with that.
Though, oh, Peggy. I love her but damn she has not been doing that great. Well, okay, except in kicking ass against Roger. I am all for her ripping him for as much money as he's got. She tried so hard to be all helpful and supportive and kind and understanding with Dawn, and ended up 1. making it really awkward because damn, Peggy, you might get some things (and bless you for trying) but 'what it's like to be the only black woman in the office' is not one of them, and 2. accusing Dawn of being a thief. I give her some props for realising exactly how bad that was and for doing her best to then redact the whole thing, but still. OW. Come on, Olsen.
Peggy's scene where she KICKS ROGER'S ASS YEAAAAAH also beautifully illustrates the way they've started tackling the generation gap thing full-on. Roger is basically a parasite at this point. He is throwing money at problems in the hope this will make him relevant again, without realising that it's never going to "get back to normal" as far as he's concerned, because his "normal" is OVER. And he can't have that much money left, so I am totally waiting for him to finish crawling up his own ass, because something has to give at some point.
I also really love that they point out that it's not strictly about age, although that's part of it. Don is living a very cool life now; he has a hot young wife who does a sexy dance at his birthday party and will have lots of sex with him in a really up-to-the-minute city apartment. He might not be able to talk to teenagers without sounding like the quintessential Ad Man asking questions about her demographic, but he's got a lot of the things associated with youth. Harry, who is way younger, is way less cool and doesn't recognise that the band he's talking to aren't the Rolling Stones. And Betty, who used to be the young, hot wife, has basically given up.
...I did hate the introduction of Fat Betty, actually. I feel really bad for her, and think the 'she's just eating too many icecreams' thing is completely insulting. I felt a bit better when they made it into a medical thing - and I really liked that they separated 'being old' and 'dying', because Betty is giving up and becoming prematurely old but apparently she's not dying - and I hope they do have it actually be a thyroid thing or something like that. I feel really bad for Betty. She got everything she wanted, and it SUCKED for her.
Whereas Don got everything he wanted and apparently it's doing really well for him! He seems to still like his wife - I think this is because Megan is 1. playing the world in exactly the way Don generally does (someone somewhere pointed to the "You're a good actress" "Clearly not good enough" exchange as the pivotal one for her in the first episode) and 2. insists on TALKING about stuff and dealing with stuff in a way that Betty was never able to. I don't know what I think is going to happen there... Don doesn't seem to want to turn her into Betty, at least not yet, and I think a lot depends on just how much she's acting. If it's only a bit, then the fact she's got Don to tell her about Dick Whitman already says many good things. If it's a lot, then oh my god is drama going to result.
Personally, I think they're playing with that. One of the other things with the murder fantasy scene was that the audience was totally expecting Megan to meet the other woman and come to the (usually) correct conclusion. We're expecting it all to come crashing down. But maybe the breath of fresh air implied by Megan's shiny optimistic yellow and willingness to go around in bikini tops in the city will be enough. Hmm. Maybe that's what all the references to Don's death are about: I was thinking "Don's got lung cancer?" when he started coughing a lot, and maybe he will have a scare or something, but also, it could be about the death of the old Don. Old Don lived a life that is becoming less and less relevant, and New Don doesn't seem sad to have left it behind. He's got his issues about it - hence weird sexual violence fantasy moment - but generally, he recognises that things can't stay the same forever, and doesn't do too badly at embracing that in his own messed up way. Roger is what happens when you don't get that at all.
(And also Betty, to a certain extent, but Betty's more about what happens when a society basically systematically renders some of its members incapable of changing, even when they need to and would be made happier for it.)
It's also really interesting to me how much kids is part of it. Not entirely: part of it's just them saying that change is gradual and we are all creations of our past and that means some people even in the swinging 60s are stuck in the 30s or earlier. (Betty's mum, for instance, clearly stopped around 1952.) But Betty is miserable and terrible as a parent, Joan loves her son but is so tired she cries and is terrified about the way everyone will now see her life as over (that was totally what her trip to SCPD was about, "don't forget me, I want to work even though I've got a kid!"), and the Campbells seem to be going down the tubes mostly because of the stress of their new baby and the change that's caused in their life. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we get all that linked to Betty's mum's casual description of being assaulted as a kid. This is a show about the image versus the reality - hence part of why it's set at an advertising agency! - and kids/parenthood are one of the biggest things we have a set vision of. Mm, fascinating.
I really can't wait for the rest of the season. YAY MAD MEN IS BACK.
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/85103.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Oh my god this show. Mostly I am just thrilled to find out what happened to these people since I last saw them - I was all "omg, Sally sounds like a grownup now! Joan had the baby! Roger became even more of a pointless douchebag of pointless douchebaggery!" But I am also thrilled because they are REALLY GOOD at using television to actually have some really interesting conversations, too.
They just did a whole episode about sexual violence that was REALLY GOOD.
I love that the obsession with the Richard Speck murders coloured the whole thing: it was such a well-done way of tying it all together. The weirdly fetishistic way the SCDP people were looking at the pictures and Betty's mum was talking about it... yes. Exactly. We have such a weird relationship to sexual violence, and we STILL DO. Using 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)' over the end credits was the perfect way of summing it up, too; the song might make people go ACK ACK ACK NO, but the messed up social stuff that gets thought processes like that going? ABSOLUTELY still around.
Which is why I love that they didn't have it just be about Dr Rapey and Joan. They were THERE - I am so glad she kicked him out and told him why; even without the raping her, she's totally right he's never understood or respected her - but the threat of violence in their breakup wasn't carried through, and that works better for me the more I think about it. Sexual violence isn't just the times violence actually happens: it's also all the times women worry about that, have that threat hanging over them, whether or not it actually happens. It's why the show Sally was watching was Mystery Date: those nurses' 'Mystery Date' was their rapist and murderer, and that's the reality pretty much every woman carries with her at all times, the reality Sally started to learn about this episode. I think it was very important Joan's mum was there, because she provided backup, in case Greg did get violent. Because Joan knew the potential for Greg to go all Don Draper Dream Sequence on her was there, because he'd been goddamn close to it before.
...aaand talking of, I also think it's very important that it was Don, the main character and someone who viewers know very well, who had such a creepy dream sequence. I like that we don't know how exactly how much of it was real: I think probably everything with the woman after the lift scene was in his head, but more importantly, it was pointing out that whatever was going on for Don with that? He went to 'mudering a woman' to express it. Sure, he almost-certainly only did so in his head, while feverish. But the stuff about the murders is where that comes from: some part of even this not-muderously-psychotic person's brain went there because there is a strong part of our culture that validates that, is titilated by that, glories in that. (I mean, how many times do TV shows have to linger lovingly on closeups of dead beautiful women? REALLY?) And Sally is completely right that that's GODDAMN SCARY.
I also like that Michael Ginsberg is the only SCPD person to really get that. He is the one who sees the fetishising of violence for what it is, and at first I thought that was just a "he's a Jew, he'll have only recently lost family to the concentration camps, of COURSE he doesn't find pictures of murdered people okay". But then they went further with it: he sees it, and he knows its power, and he uses that in his Cinderella pitch. He is seriously gunning for Don's job, and he's willing to use everything, and oh man that's going to be interesting. Especially with the way he is the male Peggy, and that she's going to have to deal with that.
Though, oh, Peggy. I love her but damn she has not been doing that great. Well, okay, except in kicking ass against Roger. I am all for her ripping him for as much money as he's got. She tried so hard to be all helpful and supportive and kind and understanding with Dawn, and ended up 1. making it really awkward because damn, Peggy, you might get some things (and bless you for trying) but 'what it's like to be the only black woman in the office' is not one of them, and 2. accusing Dawn of being a thief. I give her some props for realising exactly how bad that was and for doing her best to then redact the whole thing, but still. OW. Come on, Olsen.
Peggy's scene where she KICKS ROGER'S ASS YEAAAAAH also beautifully illustrates the way they've started tackling the generation gap thing full-on. Roger is basically a parasite at this point. He is throwing money at problems in the hope this will make him relevant again, without realising that it's never going to "get back to normal" as far as he's concerned, because his "normal" is OVER. And he can't have that much money left, so I am totally waiting for him to finish crawling up his own ass, because something has to give at some point.
I also really love that they point out that it's not strictly about age, although that's part of it. Don is living a very cool life now; he has a hot young wife who does a sexy dance at his birthday party and will have lots of sex with him in a really up-to-the-minute city apartment. He might not be able to talk to teenagers without sounding like the quintessential Ad Man asking questions about her demographic, but he's got a lot of the things associated with youth. Harry, who is way younger, is way less cool and doesn't recognise that the band he's talking to aren't the Rolling Stones. And Betty, who used to be the young, hot wife, has basically given up.
...I did hate the introduction of Fat Betty, actually. I feel really bad for her, and think the 'she's just eating too many icecreams' thing is completely insulting. I felt a bit better when they made it into a medical thing - and I really liked that they separated 'being old' and 'dying', because Betty is giving up and becoming prematurely old but apparently she's not dying - and I hope they do have it actually be a thyroid thing or something like that. I feel really bad for Betty. She got everything she wanted, and it SUCKED for her.
Whereas Don got everything he wanted and apparently it's doing really well for him! He seems to still like his wife - I think this is because Megan is 1. playing the world in exactly the way Don generally does (someone somewhere pointed to the "You're a good actress" "Clearly not good enough" exchange as the pivotal one for her in the first episode) and 2. insists on TALKING about stuff and dealing with stuff in a way that Betty was never able to. I don't know what I think is going to happen there... Don doesn't seem to want to turn her into Betty, at least not yet, and I think a lot depends on just how much she's acting. If it's only a bit, then the fact she's got Don to tell her about Dick Whitman already says many good things. If it's a lot, then oh my god is drama going to result.
Personally, I think they're playing with that. One of the other things with the murder fantasy scene was that the audience was totally expecting Megan to meet the other woman and come to the (usually) correct conclusion. We're expecting it all to come crashing down. But maybe the breath of fresh air implied by Megan's shiny optimistic yellow and willingness to go around in bikini tops in the city will be enough. Hmm. Maybe that's what all the references to Don's death are about: I was thinking "Don's got lung cancer?" when he started coughing a lot, and maybe he will have a scare or something, but also, it could be about the death of the old Don. Old Don lived a life that is becoming less and less relevant, and New Don doesn't seem sad to have left it behind. He's got his issues about it - hence weird sexual violence fantasy moment - but generally, he recognises that things can't stay the same forever, and doesn't do too badly at embracing that in his own messed up way. Roger is what happens when you don't get that at all.
(And also Betty, to a certain extent, but Betty's more about what happens when a society basically systematically renders some of its members incapable of changing, even when they need to and would be made happier for it.)
It's also really interesting to me how much kids is part of it. Not entirely: part of it's just them saying that change is gradual and we are all creations of our past and that means some people even in the swinging 60s are stuck in the 30s or earlier. (Betty's mum, for instance, clearly stopped around 1952.) But Betty is miserable and terrible as a parent, Joan loves her son but is so tired she cries and is terrified about the way everyone will now see her life as over (that was totally what her trip to SCPD was about, "don't forget me, I want to work even though I've got a kid!"), and the Campbells seem to be going down the tubes mostly because of the stress of their new baby and the change that's caused in their life. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we get all that linked to Betty's mum's casual description of being assaulted as a kid. This is a show about the image versus the reality - hence part of why it's set at an advertising agency! - and kids/parenthood are one of the biggest things we have a set vision of. Mm, fascinating.
I really can't wait for the rest of the season. YAY MAD MEN IS BACK.
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/85103.html. Please comment there using OpenID.