I think he generally likes her for all the things that make her different. Plus, she is very likable in general. Beautiful, independent, kind, caring, driven... quite a combination.


I always forget about threads that I haven't posted in (because I often scan the forum and just open every thread that I've posted in that has new posts...) Now that I've posted in this one I'm sure I'll do a better job of keeping up

Season 1: Episode 5 - 5G

Although this is a very arbitrary, I'm going to assign this episode to the "boys at the office" since there was a lot of funny interplay and further establishing of these great supporting players' stories. I'm talking specifically about Ken Cosgrove, Harry Crane, and Paul Kinsey (played by Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Michael Gladis, respectively). Pete Campbell is also a sometime member of this office gang as is Sal, although each of these characters is usually more distinced from the group as a whole. This episode is centered around "The Rat Race", with interesting discussions revolving around the dichotomy of public (Manhattan, job) vs. private (country, family) lives. It seems like Don Draper may not be the only one who is leading multiple lives...



Such a cute, tender scene between Betty and Don opens as a drunken Betty and Don return from an awards dinner in which Don has won an award. Of course, this comes back to bite him in the ass because his picture in the paper is what leads his brother Adam to him, but for a brief, glimmering moment, all was happy and calm in Don Draper's world.

I thought the whole jealousy and competition over Ken Cosgrove's story being published in The Atlantic monthly was very biting and funny, especially in regard to Pete Campbell's character and Paul Kinsey's. They're so mindlessly and relentlessly competitive with one another that it cracks me up. And the title of Cosgrove's story "Tapping a Maple on a Cold Vermont Morning" - gee, I wonder what Cosgrove's story is about - I feel like I don't even need to read it thanks to such a looong, summary title.

The whole situation with Pete, Trudy, and Charlie Fidditch was also quite amusing, purely because Pete is so damn oblivious to anyone outside himself. He can't even remember anything about his own wife - particularly the name of her first boyfriend/lover (which I'm assuming would have been a much bigger deal back in the early 60s that Trudy had sex before she was married than it is now). I am unsure about something though: does the fact that Trudy got Charlie Fidditch to publish the story in Boy's Life magazine mean that they have started an affair? I wasn't quite sure what to think about this because Charlie bluntly implied in an earlier scene that the only way that he would publish the story is if Trudy started sleeping with him again...

Poor Peggy. She's being dragged unwittingly into Don's double life of Manhattan playboy during the day and devoted daddy and husband at night once she overhears his steamy call from Midge. My sense of Peggy is that she just wants to keep her job strictly professional and doesn't want to get involved in any of the drama at the office while Joan seems to be the opposite wherein she thoroughly relishes the office gossip. Peggy made a big error in trusting Joan by telling her about Don's mistress, but I can see why she did it as she is still relatively new and unsure of herself. I had to laugh at Joan's egotistical comment regarding Don: "I've always wondered why he's ignored me." Also, Joan seemed to relish Peggy being in the awkward and uncomfortable spot when Betty came to the office with the kids and Don was MIA (again). There seems to be some sort of rivalry already bubbling between Joan and Peggy (which does seem to be largely motivated by Joan herself as she definitely is the catty type.) Joan is one of those who seems to compete with every woman, everywhere, I think.

Also, I found it surprising with Betty and her double talk about the office and Peggy. She was pretty bitter and mean when describing what happened with the family portrait with Francine but then was sweet as pie when talking to Don about the office. Maybe she was just fishing for information from Don about how he feels about Peggy...or it was just her overall jealousy of Don's work and the fact that it takes him away from her and the children...I can't make up my mind, but Betty definitely has an edge to her that she quickly tries to cover over with sweetness and a smile...

And now, I will end this little discussion with the heart (or lack of, to be more specific) of the episode with concerns Don's past and his little brother, Adam Whitman. So we, the audience, finally get definitive proof in the form of Adam Whitman that "Donald Draper" is a fictitious character made up by Dick Whitman, but we don't know exactly why Dick has done this. There are strong insinuations that Dick's home life was not a very good one, and that he created a whole new identity and life in a desperate bid to escape his old life. However, in ditching his old life, he also abandoned Adam, who totally idolized/idolizes his older brother. Adam seems so genuinely happy and openly excited to see Don again and doesn't even accuse Don or give him any guilt trips or recriminations about pretending to be dead (which is what I would have done had I been in Adam's shoes). How can Don be so cold and unfeeling in the face of Adam's obvious joy and love for him? The whole scene between Adam and Don at the deli broke my heart. When Adam asks Don, "Did you miss me at all?" and Don takes the loooooong pause and then perfunctorily answers, "Of course I did", I welled up in sympathy FOR ADAM. You took too long to answer, you lying scumbag "Donald Draper" - you are totally lying to Adam. Your little white lie of kindness still makes you a bastard.

OK, I recovered from my ire now to continue. What do you guys think the age difference is between Adam and Don - I'm guessing that there is a 10-15 year age difference between the two of them? Perhaps this somewhat explains why Don obviously feels so little connection to Adam since he was basically a young adult by the time Adam was born? Now, I have an embarrassing confession: I must admit that the first time I saw this episode and they show Don with the bag, but not what he's putting in the bag, I thought he was bringing a gun and was going to kill Adam. I was very, very nervous for Adam when Don went to go see him at the crappy hotel. I guess that I've just watched too many episodes of the Sopranos and I just see guns in every nook and cranny now. Anyway, I just wanted to conclude this by saying that I don't even think Don Draper hugged Adam sincerely. He seemed more glad to buy him off and never see him again, and the last thing he wanted to do was hug him. Poor Adam...it really sucks for him that his last living relative was born without a heart.


Favorite Lines:

Midge: I like being your medicine.
Don Draper: (pause) Okay.

Trudy Campbell: I mostly read the classics. It seemed strange to me. It's too modern.
Pete Campbell: Really? That's kind of a compliment. But I don't think you mean it that way.
Trudy Campbell: I just think it's odd that the bear is talking.

Roger Stirling: The story itself was not much to my liking. But I think it showed an uncanny understanding of what most people like.

Adam Whitman: Are you sure you don't want anything? I know - I've got this lump in my throat. I'd love to eat right now but I can't.

Betty: Our husbands. They are better out here, aren't they?
Francine: Infinitely.

I also think that Dick/Don is not actually the son of the people who raised him but Adam is. I think Don has (understandably) serious issues about being the illegitimate son and Adam as the legitimate son is kind of like salt in the wound.

You're so right...I forgot about that episode in which we get to see some of Dick Whitman as a young boy. He and Adam share the same father but not the same mother, right?

True, Don has some serious issues regarding being the illegitimate son that are perfectly understandable and sympathetic...but it's not really Adam's fault, now is it? I don't get the sense that Adam at any time scorned/scorns or has treated Dick badly in the past at all, do you? From the scene at the office and at the coffee shop, I got the sense that Adam totally worshipped his older brother and loved him without reservation...but I do need to re-watch that episode that shows Dick's past as a young boy again and re-evaluate.

I hope they show more of Don's past in Season 3...there are still so many holes in his past...

Dick was raised by his (abusive) father and stepmother (Adam's mother) until his father died when he was like 10. After that it was his stepmother and her new boyfriend who we get to know a little bit in s1 still. Based on what we've his history it is pretty amazing Dick turned into Don.

I hope they don't lose too much of the "boys at the office" thing as the show goes along. Don, Betty, Peggy, etc. are all interesting characters, but 1960s Madison avenue is and should continue to be the show's main character and those guys are a really important part of telling it's story imo.

Season 1: Episode 6 - Babylon

I suppose that since all of Don's women are simulataneously in the same episode - really, we get to see him interact with Betty, Midge, AND Rachel - that I should assign this episode to them. But there is another little scene stealer that has wiggled her heart-shaped ass into the frontrunner spot and has stolen it from them. And if you haven't guessed by now, the usurper is none other than the office temptress, Joan Holloway, aka "Red" (played by the beautiful, vivacious Christina Hendricks):



I liked how they handled the flashback/memory scene with Dick Whitman. It seems like Dick resented Adam from the moment he was born.

They start to offer subtle suggestions of why Don and Betty don't have a happy marriage because they seem to be on completely different levels. That scene where they're talking in bed and Betty is obsessing over her looks and getting older shows how shallow and vain she is (or can be). She really seems to get agitated and anxious over her inevitable aging. And also her unresolved guilt and sadness over her mother's death seems to be all mixed up with her anxiety. And Don completely dismisses her feelings of melancholy and grief. Don is completely the center of Betty's world while she is not his...just another tragic case of one person loving the other one more than the other?

One minute, we're at the office discussing Margaret, Roger's daughter, and her hair and then, blim-blam-blwow, we cut to a hotel and see Roger, half-dressed in bed, with Joan coming out of the bathroom. I am scandalized! I admit that Roger and Joan's affair caught me completely by surprise. I thought I was good at picking up the clues, but not in this case. They make a witty couple...

And Don, you intrepid little spider, spinning your web to draw beautiful Rachel Menken back in with your "Jewish" research. And then you turn down Betty when she comes on to you...lord, you are one poor, conflicted man torn between two-three women, a 1960s "Archie" torn between his "Betty" and "Veronica".

And now, on my second viewing, I finally see the subtle foreshadowing for Freddy Rumson's character that is beginning. I love well-plotted things. And his misogynistic condescension is so refreshing..."I don't speak moron". Well, I guess you'd better learn if you want to market your client's product successfully.

That scene with the one-way glass is too funny. What exactly do all those guys think that they're going to see? It's just some women putting on lipstick. Doesn't seem to be that erotic/interesting to me...I also love the foreshadowing of Sal's character here...but at this point, I still had no inkling of the revelations to come. How could I have been so blind? LOL at Joan's obvious posing for the guys behind the glass...such a tease.

Now that I'm thinking about it, there's a hella of a lot of foreshadowing in this episode. This is also the beginning of Peggy being separated from the rest of the pack of secretaries at the office. Her "basket of kisses" comment earns her some notice and respect from Freddy Rumson, enough that she's going to be writing copy. The beginning of the end of Don and Midge's relationship is foreshadowed by the East Village scene. God, some of the modernist poetry experiments were so, so terrible.

Could there be a more unromantic, unsexy gift than a bird? Maybe a vacuum cleaner, but that's about all I can think of.

I absolutely love the shot at the end with Joan in red, holding her bird cage, at a pointedly impersonal distance from Roger, both waiting for cabs. To me, that still seems like an Edward Hopper painting.

Favorite lines:

Roger: When I was her age, I rode a tramp steamer from Bar Harbor to Hilton Head.
Joan: I bet it was a yacht.
Roger: Someone still has to sail those things.

Roger: Aren't you even going to have any of this? Look, we've got Oysters Rockefeller, Beef Wellington, Napoleons? We leave this lunch alone, it'll take over Europe.

Joan: Roger, if you had your way, I would be stranded in some paperweight with my legs stuck in the air.
Roger: Wait, wait, you're gonna paint that picture and then just go?

Joan: Bet you wish you could pour that in a glass and drink it.

Midge's Beatnik Friend: Perpetuating a lie...how do you sleep at night?
Don: On a bed made of money.

I never did get around to finish rewatching the rest of season one since they pulled it off of on-demand but I am making a mad dash to do a complete rewatch of season two before the season three debut tommorrow.

This show just keeps getting better and better for me.

OMGOMGOMG, Season 3 premiere was so good! So many things I never thought of before...What a difference six months makes!



Love this photo.

Dick Whitman never gets to celebrate his real birthday...never thought of that being one of the ramifications of assuming Don Draper's identity. He just seems so fundamentally lonely because he never can achieve any real intimacy with anyone around him - not family and not friends - because of his assumed identity. Everything he talks about and reveals has to be either post-Don Draper or superficial...nothing about his formative years of childhood and adolescence.

It was funny to me how similar that stewardess looked to Betty, highlighted by her mentions of being a model. "Somewhere where you've already been" indeed, Mr. Draper.

Betty and Don seem to be pretty much reconciled after the turmoil of the end of Season 2...guess we'll just have to wait and see how long that lasts.
I couldn't help thinking throughout the episode though: after her little comment about Sally fondness for Don's tools like "a little lesbian", since when does Betty know about lesbians? Quite a change from Season 1 Betty.

God, I Pete Campbell. He's such a scene stealer. That scene between him and Ken Cosgrove in the elevator was pretty funny with each of them trying to subtly outsmirk the other. Pete and Trudy seem to be getting along a lot better than before. I loved Don's line about the Ken Cosgrove and Pete Campbell situation: "So Cosgrove versus Campbell: Is Cooper playing God or Darwin?"

Poor Sal. He just can't win...he finally gets a man for himself in a hotel in a foreign city where no one could possibly find out about it...and the fire alarm goes off....and then Don sees him with the man through the window. He just can't win.

I can see many great scenes ahead for Moneypenny.

I liked the first episode of the season. Though it's unclear what arc will develop, I remember that last year's season started at a pretty leisurely pace too.

By the way, has anyone ever noticed that the actress who plays Betty has a great porn-star name: January Jones.

I only got to episode 6 or 7 of season 1, and never saw season 2, so I'm playing catch-up, but I really enjoyed the season 3 premiere.

There was a good article about the writing team behind mad men in the Wall street Journal a few weeks ago.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...143366134.html

Warning: there is a major season 2 spoiler in it.

Good start to the season. I'm really glad I was able to get through season 2 again first as I had forgotten a lot of it.

I totally agree with the Betty/Stewartess similarity and his line was perfect. "I don't know I go to a lot of places and end up being someplace I've already been". At that point I actually thought he was gonna keep it in his pants for a change. Then at the end when his daughter finds the stew pin shows how really shameless this guy is.

Also his raincoat ad pitch to Sal on the plane home certainly seemed more of a message to Sal than a real ad pitch.

This season seems like we are gonna have some fireworks with the new British ownership. I can't wait for more!

Oh, I forgot to mention that "gynocracy" is my new favorite word.

Don't mess with Joan, Moneypenny. Just don't.

I liked last night's episode.

It's still unclear what will be the main arc this year, but I don't really care.

Peggy was pretty funny stoned.

Yeah, I liked last night's episode alot though it may seem like not a lot happened.

The scenes between Sally and her grandfather and the stolen money were making me very very nervous - I actually yelled at Sally and said "Don't give him back the money" and "Don't go in there, Sally". I don't know if I'm reading too much into his past interactions with Betty but it gives me quite an uneasy feeling to see the two of them together.

Peggy is funny stoned. "I am Peggy and I want to do marijuana" or whatever she said made me laugh.

I couldn't believe they put Roger in blackface...I know my mouth dropped open at that.

Betty Betty Betty...gonna get herself in lotsa trouble. She just can't turn away a compliment, can she?

And damn, those Campbells came dance. Pete almost seemed kind of a like a perfectly adjusted, fully functional adult this episode.

And Joan Joan Joan...what a red hot tamale she is...and plays the accordion...and sings in French....oh man.

I was really relieved at the end when he just had Sally pick up where she left off reading to him. Didn't see that coming, that storyline definitely had me nervous.

Roger in blackface was hilarious.

Hey! Why isn't anyone talking about the new stuff anymore?

Someone get on the job.

I'm liking this season a lot so far. I am kinda glad the grandpa storyline came to an end though. Peggy (and her roomie) in Manhattan could be interesting. I'd like to see if the Joan/Jane venom is expounded upon too and I'm definitely betting on Joan! And of course the Campbell/Cosgrove competition. Campbell seems to losing some of his weaselness. Is Cosgrove gay? Will Sal succeed at commercials? Will Cooper and the head Brit have it out with fisticuffs? And how will Don continue to sabotage his family life? I'm just enjoying the ride right now and can't wait for more.

I miss Hobbies synopsis too! I'm better at chiming in than recapping.

I need to post just after watching the episode, or need a synopsis. My memory is horrible lol.

Yeah I didnt want that to go where it looked like it was going. I guess it's a non-issue now.


This was already my favorite current show coming into this season. Is it just me or is it better this season, like a lot better? I can't put my finger on why it just seems even more interesting and well done.


You had to feel for Sal's wife as the exact moment of truth hit her. Also, Peggy is really growing on me as one of the better characters on the show. Her and Joan will be roomates before the end of s4, book it.

I agree about being relieved the grandfather storyline is over.

I still think season one was the best; in my opinion, that season was funnier than anything since. More LOL moments.

I think we're a few episodes away from the Kennedy assassination. Should be interesting to see how they deal with that.

I agree, season one is the best for me too although I think (so far) 3 is greater than 2. By this point we know the players a little bit better. But all of it has been great as far as I am concerned.

I dont want to read the thread and see spoilers, I havent seen any of season 3 yet and am just wondering how many episodes into season 3 it is

Three so far.

I like Peggy's character too. I don't, however, like how her relationship w/ Don is developing. I think he's always treated her well and the whole "I hate my boss" thing is a little over the top (she did say that, right?) Oh, and Peggy in the city w/ some partying roommate should be fun.

Yeah, the bedroom scene w/ Sal and his wife was rough.

I have to believe the most important part of the storyline w/ Betty's father is still coming, otherwise it seems like that whole storyline was sort of a waste of time. I still don't understand why Don laid down the law to set up a situation (Grandpa living with them) that was going to make everyone (including him and Betty) less happy. Anyone have a take on that?