I love Mad Men although I do think there is a good chance it completely jumped the shark in season four. Not to say that I don't get a little dreamy-eyed whenever I hear a Mercedes Benz commercial. Naturally, I do.
There is a scene in one of the final episodes of season four that I believe is meant to be very significant. Don Draper is in California with his young children and his secretary (whom he is schtupping, natch). They are eating in a diner and one of the kids knocks over a milkshake and it floods the table. Don's secretary cum paramour, Megan, briskly grabs some paper napkins and staunches the flow. No recriminations. No shrieking. No daggers shooting from eyes. Don and his kids gape at her; Betty, Don's ex-wife and mother of the children, would have flipped out over such a cataclysm as a spilled milkshake. There is an intentional and unflattering comparison between Megan's nonchalance and Betty's brittle freak outs. I felt this was a bit unfair Betty who is a largely unsympathetic character anyway.
Tonight the children were all a bit deranged and my husband and I were no prize-winners either. Eleanor was wound up and giddy. Beatrice exhausted and whiny. Charles over-excited and napless and biting. My husband irritable from a weekend in the bosom of his loving family. Me frazzled and desperate for five minutes peace. I am trying to feed the kids as quickly as possible so we can get directly to the night-night action. This is not that easy when everyone is in a slightly frayed mental state to begin with. At some point in the chaos, Beatrice knocks her cup off the table. Ice and water all over the place. Not a big deal, right? Its water. It was an accident. Yes, I had asked her repeatedly to stop putting it on the edge of the table but these things happen. I had to consciously stop grinding my teeth after a day full of moments like this: I could not help but think of Betty Draper.
Fine this young chippy can mop up a milkshake with a smile on her face but how pleasant is she going to be three kids from now, chain-smoking in Ossining with Francine, while Don gets brilliant someplace else and withholds emotionally 'cause thats all the man knows? Its enough to make anyone a bit snappy.
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