Mad Men season 4

I 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.

( spoilers )