Mad Men: Over at TWOP somebody suggested that the character of Rachel may be based on the life of Geraldine Stutz.

It seems pretty likely.

perhaps he had an inkling that a tape showed up in Ellen's place.

The preview for next week certainly makes it seem that way.

Alan Sepinwall raves about Mad Men.

That is a great, loving review, though I disagree pretty strongly with his take on Betty.

Which part, that she's willfully blind to Don's infidelity or that she has the emotional maturity of a 12 year old? I think the former is true and the latter is not so much that she is emotionally immature, but that she has taught herself to react to things in an emotionally stunted matter. I think a contemporary therapist would get to those issues much faster than the 1960's era Dr. Psychobabble.

Yeah, she's troubled, but has more going on than that. Although I can see why "other women are always jealous of me..." might make somebody think that.

other women are always jealous of me...

That entire speech to her analyst was nothing but a series of projections.

Yeah. Not that I ever do that. But my friend does.

The emotional maturity of a 12-year-old, definitely. There are any number of moments and character threads to point to, but, just one example: I'm amazed that anyone could sit through the episode where she goes back into modeling and is then thrown back out of it, and the complexity of her choices, reactions, decisions to tell the truth and to lie about those choices and reactions -- and then sum her up with "emotional maturity of a 12-year-old."

There's so much more going on in that character the writers and actress have created, such a tangle of compromise and regret and hunger all framed and hemmed in by the period she's living in, its expectations for a proper daughter, wife, mother (exploring all of which are reasons why the show's creators chose to set it in this particular period in the first place). The reviewer's reaction to her sounds like he's placidly accepting that period's view of her, which seems like the complete opposite of (one of) the goals of the show.

I should stop thinking about it, as it's only going to get me more and more fruitlessly pissed off at what is an entirely positive and mostly thoughtful review.

First - the feed on tonight's Mad Men totally sucked. At least, on my tv - first the audio was out of synch with the video and then the picture started breaking up. It was weird.

Tonight Pete showed that he really cannot read a room. (Of course, we know what he didn't - that he was there as a legacy of sorts.)