Hillary Clinton Watches Mad Men; Movieline Assesses a Non-Existent Episode 14
Season 3 ended weeks ago yet the show continues to get attention in the papers, including a best of the decade list, some creative fan fiction, and a shoutout from none other than Hillary Clinton. Check it out...
• The New York Times mentions that real-life agency McCann is having fun with its Mad Men notoriety. The agency bought space in trade publications like Adweek and Brandweek declaring "Welcome, Sterling Cooper," and created a website with video clips of their mentions on Mad Men.
• ABC News talks to Matthew Weiner in Sydney about the renaissance of quality TV; in the piece, Mad Men's creator references everything from The Sopranos to Miami Vice.
• Movieline continues its weekly Mad Men Power Ranking... by assessing a non-existent Episode 14.
• Huffington Post columnist Danny Miller jumps into the fray to defend Betty Draper (and all mothers of that era), explaining how her behavior was symptomatic of the period. It closes on this maternal directive: "Now shut up and go watch TV!"
• IGN reviews the entirety of Season 3, summing up "Overall, this was another great year for Mad Men."
• TV Guide's Dec. 6 issue reviews the season finale and says the only thing we do know is "it will be an excruciating wait until next summer."
• The A.V. Club counts down the best series of the aughts. Mad Men lands in fifth place; "The Wheel," "The Jet Set," "Seven Twenty Three" are listed as "essential episodes." Breaking Bad, meanwhile, is right behind in sixth place on the list.
• Hillary Clinton's interview in the December issue of Vogue notes that the Secretary of State is a fan of the show.
• The New York Observer says that the city's latest hip neighborhood isn't downtown -- it's the east side of midtown. It's popularity is attributed to "that reliable trend arbiter, Mad Men," among other factors.
Re: Danny Miller's column mentioned above defending Betty's mothering style:
My Mom used to say to us (especially in the summertime) "If you kids don't get out from underfoot" (she loved that word!) "I'm going to pull your heads off!"
....isn't that worse than just telling them to "Shut up and go watch TV"?
lol
I agree with Danny's analysis of Betty completely. My father recently gave me left over books from my parent's old collection. Two of the titles are Art Linkletter's The Secret World of Kids (1959) and Rudolph Dreikur's Children: The Challenge (1964). The case studies describe the behaviours of children in ways that would make today's readers cringe, like "obstrusive and obnoxious" on the first page of Dreikur's book. In his attempt to figure out why children and the role of parenting is getting so tough ("Our children are defiant and we stand helpless"), he suggests that their "predicament is the result of adult insecurity, emotional instability, or immaturity; of poor examples, of lack of morals or proper social values, or of a lack of religion."
Well, just wait till Woodstock Dr. Dreik... you ain't seen nothing yet. I do hope Mad Men at some point skips a few years for us to see the real effects of Betty and Sally's mother/daughter relationship. It would be interesting to watch Sally turn flower child and Betty's confounded and stilted reaction to an era so removed from her emotional sensibilities.
Thanks again, Lily, for the links. I can never get enough info and insight about the show. Loved the MW interview and the Movieline scenario.