Mad Men season 4
Jul. 18th, 2011 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreI remember some listies commenting (as the season was airing) that season 4 of Mad Men felt like the creators had suddenly realized that their show was getting a lot of attention, and wrote for that attention. It...works for me as an analysis.
The first leg of the season really irritated me because I felt like the writers went from writing Don and Betty as this supposedly dashing and charming man who blew people away with his charisma was really a total cretin drowning in self-destructive tendencies and making his wife completely miserable and that between him and the fact that society dictated that she live a life that was completely against anything she ever wanted (Does anyone really think she would EVER have kids if she lived today? Maybe one token kid if she was married to a guy who demanded an heir, but she would not be a hands-on mother at all.) it caused all sorts of problems for her, to writing them as if Betty were the horrible woman ruining his life, and a lot of Don's actions re: women were just downright creepy in a way they weren't before.
I also think that Anna, Betty and his kids are the only people Don has ever really loved (with the possible exceptions of his father, brother, Roger and Peggy, and maybe Pete, but I'm really not sure there, and Peggy he seems to more see as an extension of himself that owes him than anything else) and I doubt that will change.
That said, I think his deciding to marry Megan (I have no idea how they're speling the name, so I'm going with the spelling of my own name) makes perfect sense. She's bright and sweet and loves kids and has the safe and nurturing aura that Anna had, she's beautiful and glamorous and basically physically the perfect arm decoration like Betty, and she has Peggy's coloring and ambitions. Remove Sally from the equation, and she's all the most important women in his life rolled into one.
And I despreately hope she escapes that drama ASAP.
Also, Don is really a terrible father? Like, just as bad as Betty is a mother? I mean, sure he LOOKS better on the surface because he isn't around as much and makes Gestures when he is, but he's basically the Cool Parent who shows up with toys and makes speeches about how he loves his kids, but that's about it. I mean, when he was with Betty, his idea of discipline was "obey your mother" and leaving everything else to Betty, and he was basically barely around half the time. (This prompted by my having seen treatises while the season was airing and after about how Betty's a terrible mother, but nothing about Don being a bad father.)
Other things:
1. If I ever had any doubts that Roger sees Jane as anything but a Joan he can have, they were gone pretty early in the season.
2. Raise your hand if you were really bugged by the "Let's acknowledge civil rights!" episode. I mean, aside from the fact that you had an educated, decently off white man preaching the evils of racism to a white woman, you also have the "women=minorities" argument which...seemed to be presented pretty uncritically. I mean, as a social institution, segregation is something that affects both POC and women, not to mention anyone of a sexuality or faith that is visibly evident (or assumed) and outside of what's considered the social norm. (Which, in the US, is an able bodied, heterosexual white male.) And I think that the comparison can come up re: the idea that certain ethnicities/genders cannot cross into certain roles/fields as an argument for "things are just different/this Type is not suited for this role." That, though, isn't the legal, institutionalized segregation that was being discussed in the episode, and the social segregation itself isn't the same.
3. Sally Draper is the most awesome TV kid ever.
4. I now like Pete. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THIS HAPPENED!
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Date: 2011-07-19 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 03:47 am (UTC)