Hee. If I get nods of agreement from Corwood, sj and erika for the same post, I think my day has probably topped out and I should just close up my office and go straight to bed before something happens to ruin it.

I actually really kind of love that almost everyone on Mad Men is so hugely unlikable, but with so many flashes of heartbreaking wretchedness under the shiny, cigarette-stinky facade. Even Pete, who is basically a horrible little tick, has had brief moments where you can see that he's genuinely doing the best he can; he's just hopelessly fucked-up and wrong, and possibly even dimly aware of what a horrible little tick he is, just completely clueless as to how to make himself one iota better or different.

Betty completely breaks me. I've only seen the episode with (whitefonted in case Sail and other DVD watchers aren't fully caught up yet) her brief return to modeling once; it wrecked me. Her delight at remembering the freedom and adventures of her young adulthood and at bringing that self back to life, and then the abrupt end because none of that rebirth was ever real, for her, it was all just to woo Don through her and she herself didn't mean a thing to anyone --infuriating and insulting and heartbreaking. I really kind of can't wait to see her again and what she has or hasn't made of her life since Don sat down on the stairs of his empty house .

Thanks, JZ. I knew about Peggy from bits I caught last year, but I'm still only through episode 5. I'm hoping to catch up on the rest this weekend.

What did y'all make of the neighbor's boy, the one with the hair fetish? The relationship between him and Betty is so odd, I'm not sure what I'm seeing. Is it, "You have a hair fetish and I'll keep your secret if you let me cry about my life to you"? I couldn't tell if there was a soupcon of the kid being wiser than his age or not, or if I was projecting that onto him because Betty was talking to him as if he was an adult.

What did y'all make of the neighbor's boy, the one with the hair fetish?

Well, Ossining is right down the road from Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted...

(Honestly, I've got no clue what to make of the whole Glen subplot, even after rewatches. Clearly, there are all kinds of things swirling around about secrets, and trust, and knowledge you aren't supposed to have -- but on a more concrete, what's up with this kid on a level that's not just taking him as a symbolic construct? No clue.)

I actually really kind of love that almost everyone on Mad Men is so hugely unlikable, but with so many flashes of heartbreaking wretchedness under the shiny, cigarette-stinky facade. Even Pete, who is basically a horrible little tick, has had brief moments where you can see that he's genuinely doing the best he can; he's just hopelessly fucked-up and wrong, and possibly even dimly aware of what a horrible little tick he is, just completely clueless as to how to make himself one iota better or different.

JZ, you are brilliant and summed up perfectly what I wanted to say about the series. So much pain under so much shiny.

What did y'all make of the neighbor's boy, the one with the hair fetish?

I'm not sure what to think about that kid, but I think he was important to highlight how lonely Betty is and how she had really no one to talk to.

My take on that whole skin-crawly thing is that (a) the kid is seriously creepy; (b) Betty has been very, very well trained in complaisance and passivity and has incredible difficulty saying no to anyone; and (c) even though she's mildly creeped out by the kid, she desperately wants to unload on someone who's attentive and responsive (definitely not Don, and her analyst certainly listens but never responds, plus he's being paid to listen and this kid, however inappropriately, is actively seeking her out). I'm pretty sure nothing good can come of it.

YSkinCrawlyTakeMV.

I did feel for Pete in the one ep where his new wife and her family...well, they gang up on him and plan his life for the duration. I'm not sure if we are supposed to expect anything...pathological from Glenn, or if in some weird way they just don't fit, so this weird bond develops...I think I've been halfway conditioned by my decade-long L&O habit for him to begin stalking her or do something sick to the Drapers' dog.

I'm so glad I'm not going to be alone in my Mad Men fixation this season. *g* One of Lewis' aunts, who's terribly literal and closed-minded, especially for a woman who works in women's health services as a nurse, said she watched an episode of it and found it horrible how it represented women.

And when I said it wasn't meant as some kind of political statement, but rather a representation of a slice of American culture during an era at which we were at huge crossroads, she looked at me as if I was speaking Urdu. Then again, this is the same woman who referred to Love Actually as having porno scenes and when I said that it was actually a brilliant way in which to execute the most innocent of the love stories, told me I was--wait for it-- an idealist.

I like that the characters are flawed and interesting. You understand everybody's motives. You see the flaws of the era and the sexist, racist, anti-semitic, homophobic culture. Nobody's completely irredeemable. Nobody's untainted.

It's very sharply written and it looks beautiful, and the stories were very compelling.

It's so beautifully layered, too- just something new revealed each week.

this is the same woman who referred to Love Actually as having porno scenes

Huh? I obviously haven't watched Love Actually nearly enough.

Huh? I obviously haven't watched Love Actually nearly enough.

The relationship with the couple who were employed as body doubles on a film. They spent most of their scenes buck naked, having the most lovely get to know you conversations.