Mad Men Season 3 Discussion

[lefty]

Originally Posted by Teacher

Yeah, I thought so too. The "real" Don finally showed through...the one who was terrified of his past and of being found out.

Is he terrified of being found out? He's obviously embarrassed and ashamed of things he's done and where he's from but being outed at work was hardly a big deal. That leaves his personal life. He's a ****** husband and doesn't seem to be much better of a father. What's the downside to Peggy uncovering his past? She leaves him? His life (as he's decided to live it) would get better.

lefty

 

[Teacher]

Originally Posted by lefty

Is he terrified of being found out? He's obviously embarrassed and ashamed of things he's done and where he's from but being outed at work was hardly a big deal. That leaves his personal life. He's a ****** husband and doesn't seem to be much better of a father. What's the downside to Peggy uncovering his past? She leaves him? His life (as he's decided to live it) would get better.

lefty

You're not seeing it from his perspective. He is terrified, because he's so deeply ashamed of his past that he was willing to turn his younger half-brother -- who had been clearly in need of attention from Don -- away for the sole reason that Don didn't want people to discover his past.

 

[embowafa]

+1 to what everyone is saying.

That 5-10 minutes from when Don got out of the car to the next day, my jaw was on the floor.

That face Don makes when something bad happens...his eyes bulge, his ears pull back, and his face becomes taught.....it hit him like a ton of bricks. The dropping of the cigarette...all of it was perfect.

I feel like this was the one thing that was keeping the distance between he and Betty...you could almost feel the demons leaving him....the weight off the chest. Granted, he had a mistress waiting in his car outside, but I think this couple really turned a corner. Betty finally sees why Don is the way he is, and Don is able to confide in his wife, albeit forced.

 

[IUtoSLU]

Divorce? Really? It was a good episode. More comments later.

 

[Manton]

Weiner insisted in an interview that he was not going to do much with the Kennedy assasination because it had been so overdone in fiction, TV and movies. So much for that pledge.

 

[js4design]

i assumed he said that so it would come as a surprise.

 

[Teacher]

Boring episode. Boring. Boring boring boring boring boring. The laundry I was doing was less predictable and more exciting. Although I'd like to see how this season ends, I've really grown tired of it and may just find something else to do on Sunday nights.

 

[grundletaint]

i DVR it now, read the thread here, then get around to watching it whenever i have absolutely nothing else to do. this show, while i greatly appreciate the aesthetic, has absolutly no plot device to keep my interests. i could really care less what's going on with it after i was really into the 1st season. it's kind of like electronic ambien.

if they're gonna focus on life outside the office (which i don't really like as the business culture is my favorite part), i think they need to start showing the home lives of the other characters. don and betty's merry-go-round bullshit has run its course. i would love to see roger and bert's social lives and even the uppity jazz dude out with his lady.

 

[Manton]

This was not one of their more rivetting efforts, one must admit.

Still, we got to see Roger at home for the first time, plus his former home, plus more of Pete and Trudy at home. That was all at least somewhat novel.

 

[robbie]

I did not enjoy this episode as much as last weeks.

next weeks episode is entitled 'close the door, have a seat'

I really wonder who is going to be saying it and who is going to have to hear it.

 

[83glt]

So Betty can now feel relaxed about divorcing Don because she has a new man to feed her. What's not believable to me though is how much she's into that guy without knowing him at all. It's much easier to see why he'd be interested in her.

With each new episode now it becomes increasingly clear how Betty as a character was basically an afterthought and grafted onto the storyline (good review in this month's Atlantic). Seems pretty clear to me that the writers had no clue about what to do with her, so they thought they'd do everything. It's not working for me, and it's taking away from all of the good aspects of the show. Too much unpredictable drama (which is unlike the good suspenseful kind). Betty should have had a much smaller role.

Of course from Don's perspective, there's the irony that he's finally trying to be a good father and husband and Betty dismisses him. Will he fall apart and revert to his old ways or will he stand up to her and take the kids and try to ruin her? My bet is that neither happens in the next episode, because Betty is going to turn to love him again after having watched JFK's funeral and having realized how important it is for the family to stay together for the children. Then later in the episode, Betty's going to finally admit she was wrong and wants to divorce Don. Don will cry. But then by the end of the episode Betty will love Don again and want to stay together. But then just before the credits she will kill him.

Did anyone notice Pete Campbell's comment about throwing LHO to the "mob"? Obviously, he meant thrown to the mob as in "mob justice". But does anyone think Weiner was alluding to the theory of mafia connections behind JFK's assassination? I think he was, if only to allude to Ruby's ties. I thought it was clever.

 

[chronoaug]

Yea, i hope betty gets hit by a truck or something so the show can go back to being good. She's awful


They have a lot of stuff to address in the final episode. The stuff they hinted at in the preview:

peggy and duck
pete going to duck
don and betty divorce
don and teacher
betty and politics guy
joan and husband
joan and job/roger
british selling the company
don and his job maybe in jeopardy
probably more i'm forgetting

 

[Teacher]

Originally Posted by chronoaug

don and teacher

That's just a vicious rumor. I'm straight and married.

 

[Steve Smith]

Originally Posted by chronoaug

They have a lot of stuff to address in the final episode. The stuff they hinted at in the preview:

peggy and duck
pete going to duck
don and betty divorce
don and teacher
betty and politics guy
joan and husband
joan and job/roger
british selling the company
don and his job maybe in jeopardy
probably more i'm forgetting

True, but half of these items will not be touched in the final episode.

 

[Steve Smith]

Slow episode overall. Things were disrupted when JFK was assassinated? No kidding? This felt like filler.

I found it interesting when Campbell's wife asked him detailed questions about his demotion conversation with his boss. He was acting like a child while she was analytical and understood nuances about what happened. She is formidable.

And then......a day or two later she makes a 180 and gets sulky about it and suggests talking to Duck. I am puzzled by her change of attitude