The virtues of Mad Men

This is the new heading for the Mad Men thread.

Red in the face

 Rarely do we get an example of an episode which is irredeemably bad as this one: all the show's vices distilled into one episode. It starts off trying to be deep and that is just not this show's strength. It does better when it stays on the surface and leaves it for us to do the deep thinking.

In the opening shot, Don is speaking to the psychotherapist who is seeing Betty. (I won't say, fraudulent or bogus psychotherapist because that would be redundant.) Dr. Wayne tells us that Betty has "not been particularly forthcoming yet" but then says,

Mostly she seems consumed with petty jealousies and overwhelmed with everyday activities. Basically we are dealing with the emotions of a child here.

Now the problem here is that we have had lots of opportunities to see Betty in action and we know that no matter how forthcoming she is it won't get any more profound than that. She is consumed with petty jealousies and overwhelmed with everyday activities. She is childish. This ought to be obvious to Don too.

But he just says that Betty hasn't always been like that. Should we believe him? I don't. Anyway, then the good therapist becomes the mouthpiece for the very tritest sort of feminism:

We're finding that this kind of anxiety is not uncommon in housewives.

My mother was a housewife during this period.  Eventually, she got bored. So she started as a volunteer for the local symphony orchestra, she worked her way up to the board and then headed a committee that had a  new Arts Centre built. After her youngest entered Junior High School, she went back to work. She did not become a child.

I think some people like being housewives but no one should be obliged to be. That's the legitimate feminist point. Full stop. The only thing that has infantilized Betty Draper is Betty Draper.



Roger Sterling Esq.
This being first season, John Slattery is still just making guest appearances as Roger Sterling. We get a beautiful moment right off the top when Bert tells Roger an elaborate fable about Hitler getting everything he wanted out of Chamberlain by taking him somewhere he couldn't smoke. Roger's answer is perfect:

So far, all I'm getting out of this is that Hitler didn't smoke and I do.

And then he gets Don to go out for a drink.

Don, interestingly, invites Roger home for dinner and then calls Betty and lies to her claiming Roger pressured himself into it. Which sets up an extended run of pure boredom. And utterly unbelievable boredom ending with Roger hitting on Betty. It's not that this is wrong for the period; it's wrong for the character as the show's maker's have set him up. First of all, even if Roger did hit on Betty, everything we know about the guy says he wouldn't do it in this clumsy way. Second, the whole point of Roger is not that he has no moral scruples but different scruples. They are obviously not scruples the creator's want us to like but they are moral scruples and they would not include hitting on Don Draper's wife.

As a consequence, this episode mostly wastes our time on a  subplot that doesn't fit. Not until the third season will the show sink so low again.

What is wrong with you?
That is the question Helen asks Betty. She has found out about the lock of hair. Betty's response is to slap Helen. Helen has a point though, What is wrong with you? It has nothing to do with the period or with the way that Don is treating her. There is something deeply wrong with this woman. If you haven't seen the rest of the series, I'll spare you a lot of pointless watching, we never find out what is wrong with her. More than a few have blamed January Jones for being a mediocre actor—which she certainly is—but the real problem is the character they have given her.

Don has similar questions. Why did Betty make such a fool of herself flirting with Roger when he was over. And she did make a fool of herself, whether Roger's (uncharacteristic) response was appropriate or not.

Revenge
 And then Don gets his revenge on Roger. If we weren't watching we might miss Don paying Hollis the elevator operator to pretend that the elevator is broken when he gets Roger back from a lunch at which he plies him with oysters and martinis. Hilarity ensues.


And so does a brilliant bit of acting wherein Roger looks at Don with a look that shows that he has figured it out.

I don't claim to be able to read the minds of 20 somethings but I bet this scene plays well with them. What a pleasant change from all this sensitivity to see how real men solve their problems.

Final thought
We  get a lot more childishness from Betty than any reasonable director should submit us to and none of it is of any interest in terms of analyzing her character. But they do provide some insight into the creator's. Check out this bit of dialogue. She has been asked by Francine about Doctor Wayne.

Betty: My mother always said, 'You're painting a masterpiece, make sure to hide the brush strokes.' She was really beautiful. Then I think, Why am I doing all this? I'm not that vain?

Francine: What does Doctor Wayne say?

Betty: Nothing. Except, tell me more about that.

Francine: I'm still dying to try it.

Betty: I'm pretty sure Dr. Wayne tried to look down my neckline the other day. He sits behind me. And as far as I'm concerned, as long as men look at me that way I'm earning my keep.

Okay, we know the type.  She is vain. And stupid, and infantile and .... But is there anything particularly 1960s about this? To the contrary, Betty isn't like a 1959 housewife at all. I walked down Bank Street here in town yesterday yesterday and saw a bunch of young women with their leggings pulled up so the centre seam parted their vaginal lips for all the world to see and the their tops cut so their breasts were spilling out. If Betty is supposed to  be about showing us how bad things were "back then" it's not working out. There are more women who think that getting men to state at their breasts is "earning their keep" today than was ever true in the 1960s.

My thesis is that this is true of the whole series. The reason people like Katie Baker are getting themselves into such a tizzy is that the whole thing is unintentionally subversive of our sense of superiority. I'm serious, go roam around the 'net. Everywhere you go you'll read people worrying that we're getting the "wrong" messages from the show.

If you are joining me here, this series starts here.

The next post in the series is here.