Watching last night’s episode of Mad Men, I was once again struck — powerfully so — with the belief that January Jones had to have done something to spark Matt Weiner’s ire for him to turn Betty Draper into arguably the most unlikeable character in the history of television. I have three guesses.
1. She left an upper-decker for him when he once hosted a party at his house.
2. She has Weiner’s son, aka Creepy Glenn, convinced that Obama is a communist/Muslim who plans to invade “real America” with an army of gays in his second term.
3. She banged Jeremy Piven and Bobby Flay.
All of the above?
With that said, here are a few notes I made during last night’s Mad Men about characters, scenes, etc. I found interesting for one reason or another.
– Opening the show with Betty eating alone, measuring her food was just awesome. And OMFG Betty and the whipped cream! I can’t remember losing my sh*t as hard as I did when this happened. Like, I laughed so hard it left me gasping for air and eventually coughing. And, of course, my first thought was, “I can’t wait to see the GIF.”
– Also, nice of Matt Weiner to feature the world’s worst mother on an episode airing on Mother’s Day.
– “I respect anything that rewards you for silence.” — Roger Sterling, in the first of many awesome lines he had again last night.
– This is hardly a revelation, but Megan > Betty, all day, every day, in every way. Has there ever been a second wife upgrade better than Megan?
– “How Jewish are they…’Fiddler on the Roof’, audience or cast?” — Roger Sterling giving us all the universal standard tool for Jewy-ness measurement going forward, forever and ever.
-Speaking of Roger, how is he not broke yet? He’s constantly having to dole out cash out of his own pocket to keep up with Pete, and in this episode he bought a new apartment for his soon-to-be ex, while also supporting two other ex-wives. Dude’s gonna be living on Bert Cooper’s drool-stained sofa by the time the series is done.
– “They make wine for Jews…but now they’re making one for normal people, people like me.” — Guess who.
– Betty telling Sally about Anna has to be the bitchiest thing she’s even done on the show. I was actually livid myself when she did that. WHAT A SUPERC*NT! The only way she can be happy is by bringing misery to others. Just like Megan insinuated, she’s a poison. I want her to get hit by a damn ice cream truck. That’s where the Fat Betty storyline is leading, right? Please tell me that Weiner is building toward an ironic death for her. Oh God how I hate Betty Draper. And how sad was it when it appeared for a moment that little Sally might have been turning into Betty? Thankfully, Don and Megan handled the situation better than I would have and then cleverly stuck a knife in Betty’s dark, fat heart with the note on the back of Bobby’s drawing.
– Also, Betty’s reaction to Bobby’s drawing of a whale with three arrows in it made me think that she thought it was a metaphor pertaining to her fat ass having three kids or something.
– What’s this little competitive dance suddenly going on between Don and Ginsberg? Has that been bubbling beneath the surface for a while and I just didn’t notice it? I know that Don never really liked him — their personalities couldn’t be more polar opposites — but this seems to have come out of nowhere. Regardless, I like it — I miss Don and Pete trying to stab each other in the back constantly. Oh, and this is how you rip an adversary’s heart out…
– There was no way Roger was gonna get his ex a new apartment and then let some other swinging dick come in and christen the place. I respect that.
– That toxic NYC death smog Megan referenced? Really happened. Killed 169 people, in fact.
– And here’s the New York Times Magazine article on advertising Pete had a raging boner for, only to have his side-boob-y daydreams crushed in the end, further enhancing the case for a future Pete suicide in the process.
– “When a man hates another man very, very much, sometimes he wants to know that something is his, even if in the end he has to give it up.” — Roger Sterling
– WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO LANE PRYCE?
– All hail Sally Draper, trolling before trolling was cool…
Thoughts? Anything I missed? Please empty your brains in the comments.
(GIFs via Chet Manley)