tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post2077558999184130130..comments2024-03-12T16:53:52.795-04:00Comments on Crypto-Catholic Libertine: Mad Men: The ForecastJules Aiméhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-4095904792403049682015-04-28T17:36:17.752-04:002015-04-28T17:36:17.752-04:00Ha. That speech does sound like something I would ...Ha. That speech does sound like something I would say. There were a few times in my younger years when I needed to be on the receiving end of speech like that but there was no one in my life to make it.<br /><br />I'm amazed how many people writing about the show thought that interaction went in favour of Mathis. A lot of people really, really hate Don.<br /><br />I really liked the everything Don had to say this episode and I tend to read his inability to come up with anything in the way of future vision as a reflection of his own unhappiness with the business he is in. It's time for Don to move on.<br /><br />You're absolutely right about the acting. Betty is always played in that wooden style, I don't if that is because she was asked to do it that way or if that is all the acting January Jones is capable of. I tend to think the former. Weiner's kid playing Glen definitely can't act. Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-81395794795453370412015-04-28T16:20:48.871-04:002015-04-28T16:20:48.871-04:00The other thing that makes the creepy-Glen plot cr...The other thing that makes the creepy-Glen plot credible is the badness of the acting. It has only gotten worse!<br /><br />Oh, and I am surprised you didn't say anything about Don's speech as he fires Johnny Mathis. Did you write that part and send it in to Matt Weiner?Gaiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11691006770731341338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-70232356549001784582015-04-28T11:51:29.217-04:002015-04-28T11:51:29.217-04:00I understand your point but I buy the Glen Bishop ...I understand your point but I buy the Glen Bishop line for reasons I will expand on in a future post. He's a minor character so we don't get to see a lot of his development. In a case like that, I think it's perfectly acceptable narrative technique to have a character do something late in the action that retroactively changes the meaning of his previous actions.<br /><br />I'll have a lot more to say about esoterica in future posts too. <br /><br />At least one other person noticed the odd second divorce reference. I'd love for it to turn out that she and Paul Kinsey used to be married but I have no evidence for that.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-77848893052615208182015-04-27T16:20:32.103-04:002015-04-27T16:20:32.103-04:00Eh, there were a lot of unconvincing moments in th...Eh, there were a lot of unconvincing moments in this episode. I take it as part of your esoteric Mad Men thesis that a lot of the surface-level plot stuff is basically irrelevant to the real story, which is based on our intuitions about the character types that the different figures reveal. This is an episode that bolsters your thesis because so many of the plot points could just be ignored without much damage to the overall story.<br /><br />To be honest, the idea that Glen Bishop has been obsessed with Betty for a decade simply isn't credible. Yes, he did creepy stuff when he was ten, but he was just a weird little kid... then he was semi-normal for about five years (I think he was rehabilitated a bit), and now we are supposed to believe that there was a secret Betty-obsession the whole time? The narrative set-up just isn't there to support that; and why would it be?--Glen has never really been an important character. Really he's the kind of fictional character who should resent his writers because they screw him over all the time, they just throw him in whenever they need a bit of domestic creepiness.<br /><br />And yes--why does she say she's been divorced twice?Gaiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11691006770731341338noreply@blogger.com