Hello, just finished my 3rd watch through, enjoyed it even more so this time.

A question on Peggy and Pete (their relationship intrigues me with the Baby and all). I could have sworn there was an episode where Pete puts Peggy down, something along the lines of "Id never go for you, you're just some girl from Brooklyn" or words like that. I swear I didnt hear/see that this time around, was I dreaming?

Thanks all.

In S1, their “man from research” postulated that society has a death wish. That secretly we have a love affair with danger. With risk. With living on the edge.

I’d argue this is true. Your mileage may differ.

However, going over S1 and S2, again, I’ve noticed Don is a lot more distant, colder, and less “himself” with Betty than he is with a lot of his mistresses. Frankly, he’s actually kind of a “Dick” to her, pun intended

My question to you is, on some level, do you think Don wanted to sabotage or end his marriage? Not necessarily anywhere near consciously. But Don was never a fighter. He was someone who liked to flee from responsibilities. Flee from commitments.

A guy with Don’s intelligence would know after the psychiatrist reported to him that Betty was wise to his cheating to “limit his exposure”, so to speak. If he had to cheat, to be more discreet.

But he doesn’t, if anything in S2 he’s even more egregious with it.

Someone even marginally intelligent would at least try to stop after his wife has essentially a mental breakdown, knows he cheated, and even scours the entire house looking for evidence of it. He doesn’t. He fucks his own daughter’s teacher after this.

So did Don on some level want to push Betty away, have it end?

first time watcher How does Joan put up with him for so long?

He has zero redeeming qualities and is a controlling ass all the time to her. He throws a tantrum whenever things aren’t exactly what he wants. Not to mention the rape.

I cannot wait for Joan to dump his sorry ass in the trash where it belongs.

I was introducing my friend to the pilot of the show the other night when I picked up on a line from Pete that seems to serve as a foreshadowing device for the remainder of the first season. After that first meeting that goes bad with Rachel Menken, Pete says to Don, “A man like you I’d follow into combat blindfolded, and I wouldn’t be the first.” Considering what we find out later about Don and his past, I found this line to extra chilling, especially as someone that has seen the show before. I just wanted to open up this can of worms on here because my friends and family have never really seen the show.

I can’t explain it but it never sat right with me.

Of course what he does isn’t moral, none of it, but there is just, to me, a sleaziness to the affair Don and Bobbi Barrat have that isn’t as present in the other affairs.

Am I alone in this?

Geepers Betty is mean mom … who created a storm when Bobby traded her sandwich .. eat the gumdrops and be happy her kid is entrepreneurial to think sandwiches are better than sandwiches.. or was he concerned that Suzy didn’t have any lunch …

Roger mimicking Dr. Zaius makes me laugh.

I love Mad Men but I always thought it was weird that they positioned Don as Nixon and Pete as Kennedy. Pete and his almost aristocratic Dykeman lineage doesn’t compare at all to being from an Irish Catholic immigrant family (an ethnicity and religion that wasn’t fully accepted by the elite at that time and certainly not before) and Don was a (sympathetic) conman, not a clean cut Nixon type.

If anything Don’s rise to prominence was more like a Kennedy: riding on his looks, dependent on sketchilly begotten connections with the upper crust, almost respected for his philanderous nature. Sure, Don’s father didn’t use his ire in the same way Joe Kennedy did, but he sure had ire, and in a way he did push Don to be who he was. One other difference is that JFK was actual war hero whereas don Draper was given the Purple Heart by mistake. But Pete never even served at all. Exempted by his status and wealth.

I really enjoyed the first 2 seasons, but season 3 keeps putting me to sleep.

Should I continue watching? When does it get better?

In S2, during Don’s physical, the doctor says Don is 36.

This is about accurate to Dick Whitman’s age.

But Don Draper, the man whose identity Don assumed, would be 45 years in S2 (being born in 1917).

How does Dick use his actual age with his doctor, but has Don’s identity otherwise?

That Don was cheating?

They were married about 7 years at the start of the series.

Did she realize it and just suppress it?

And what about the resentment she feels by the start of the series?

Just a random thought I had watching the finale.

Like for real. The guy spends most of the show lounging about in his office without any shoes on, kind of like how Don Eladio simply chills by the side of his swimming pool the whole of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

The whole goody, cheerful old man persona is actually a façade because deep down he is actually quite a ruthless businessman, clearly having utilised his many years of experience to his advantage. He knows Don Draper isn't actually Don Draper but he doesn't give a shit, until the situation is convenient for him when he stealthy blackmails Don to sign the contract whilst sitting in Don's chair.

It's even implied by Roger that Bert had his doctor killed after he chopped off both his nutsacks unnecessarily during surgery, rendering him infertile.

He condemned Lane and Pete's fight as "medieval" but does absolutely nothing to stop it and just watches on because deep down he likes it when things get down and gritty.

He probably figured out Don fired Lane to sort out Lane's fraudulent embezzlements after Lane's suicide but didn't care enough to follow-up with it because apparently his most important principle is that "there is more profit in forgetting about this".

He gently demands Jane readjust the black secretary who was at the front of reception in wholesomely racist manner because he was worried about the reputation of the business if people saw a woman of colour at the forefront of the agency.

It seems that the only thing that matters to Bert is money money money. He has no wife, no kids, the only person who lives with him is his maid. He is old as a fossil but only continues to stick around as "professor emeritus" because the success of his business is all that matters. Bert was a straight up OG gangsta.

I am re-watching mad men for the 15th time (at least). Every time I rewatch the series I notice a few new details that I never have before. Right now I am re-watching season two. There are two subtle things that I have speculated on and I wonder if anybody agrees with me. The first thing I noticed is in season 2, episode 9 - “Six Month Leave”. This is the episode right before Roger leaves Mona. Do any of you think that Jane tried to get with Don once she found out that he and Betty were on the rocks? It seems like she was trying to gain his romantic affections when she went to Mankins to buy him a few new shirts for his “rotation”. The next thing I noticed is in the very next episode episode 10 - “The Inheritance”. The episode where Betty learns that her father Jean has had a stroke. It takes three days for his new wife, Gloria to inform Betty that he had actually had the stroke. And later we learn that this is actually his second stroke. When Betty and Don go to her father’s house to visit due to his health ailment Gloria and Betty‘s brother seem extremely cheerful and at ease - not at all worried about Jean and his health and the fact that he could die. Was it written like that on purpose because Gloria and Betty’s brother genuinely did want him to die sooner than later he could have the house and she could have his money?

Let me know what you all think. Maybe these things are really obvious and I’m the only one that never noticed or maybe I’m overthinking into something that’s not there.

lol this guy hires duck philips over kenny and pete then spends the rest of season 2 acting like it wasn’t his decision.

i dont typically rewatch the first 3 seasons but i’m back on season 2 and Don has nothing but distaste for him. Right after the botched american airlines pitch, Roger tries to make him feel better, but Don makes this whole stink about Duck not being able to bring in new business. like BRUH YOU HIRED HIM LOL Roger should be the one pissed at him for wasting their time.

side note - peggy’s family sucks so much. i actually hate season 2 bc they’re in it so much with this church storyline.

Perhaps this has been speculated before but Paul Kinseys drunken idea had to be something about Ancient Greece, right? He comes up with it after hearing Achilles name.

So maybe: -the first marathon where the dude dies “telegram is easier” ?

Any other thoughts? He was obviously proud of how well-versed he was in the classics.

Someone suggested that rewatching a beloved TV show can tune out election static, and this is why I'm in season two. (It works, at least for 48 minutes at a time.) "The Jet Set" was last night's episode.

I was struck, again, by the hallucinatory nature of the California scenes -- the Betty doppelgänger in the hotel bar, Joy, and especially the Palm Springs sequence, which even starts with a dead faint, and Don waking up in a version of Oz, only with less interesting conversations. Whoever wrote this really despises the ultra-rich, drifting around the world's beautiful places and scarcely noticing them, always staying "with friends" and passing the time drinking, floating around swimming pools, and having sex with one another. The inane chatter at dinner: "Let's play Places!," like they haven't played it 10,000 times already, and everyone is wowed because Don can think of a city that starts with O. Joy is reading William Faulkner because she started to read it in prep school, which it sounds like she didn't even finish. But she prefers sex with a stranger.

Just a strange, strange, wonderful episode. This show is giving me great comfort in a stressful time.

I love her as an actress in her other work. This character doesn’t do it for me. I just don’t see it during the season. What are your thoughts?