So what is Pete going to do if he doesn't have Trudy to kick around anymore?
I wish I had thought to ask Vincent K.-- (under "Ask the Actors" Blog)-- if Pete is fully aware of the extent to which he has been emotionally abusive to Trudy...OR...if her mild, eager- to- please responses to his abuse (except for the chicken scene) have him believing that he's not treating her that badly at all?
Under the theory that some people will treat their emotionally abused " victim" just as badly as the victim will tolerate, I think it's a good thing for Trudy that Pete is "blowing her off." ( So that Trudy can get away from him-- -even though it didn't appear to be her choice as Season II ended).
Only when she's out from under his domain will Trudy have her "awakening," and begin to realize how horribly she has been treated by her husband--(and as a corrollary to that, what low self-esteem she has). I see her as perhaps the most un-self-aware of all the females on the show-- (in a way, even more insidiously abused that Joan's rape-- Certainly more on-going.
Joan KNOWS what happened to her at the hands of her "guy." Trudy still has that to learn, and it will be a long, hard, emotional trip for Trudy to learn/accept that ...(Denial ain't just a river in Egypt)....
She needs to gain some self respect -- once she realizes she never had any---and unfortunately, that's not done over-night. And the poor girl's already in her ...what...late twenties?!! How's she going to "get right" in time to attract a winner-type guy?
And P.S.:
Did anyone else besides me find some of those husband-wife scenes between Pete- the- Emotional- Abuser and Trudy- the- People- Pleaser painful to watch? The demeaning tone and manner in which he spoke to her, and her non-reaction to it --as though this was the normal way two people in love inter-act!!
Be that as it may, I think that Pete will end up being the one who, in the end, suffers the longest and the most deeply over the marriage.. He'll end up having those regrets that you carry into old age...those regrets for having treated someone very badly and/or hurt someone signficantly...and it's in the past and unchangeble so you live with the guilt.
He may get over PEGGY. The surprise may be that he ultimately is never able to get over TRUDY. (JMHO).
Really good post, Jackie, and yes, I agree about it being painful to watch Pete and Trudy's scenes. Emotional abuse is no more easy to watch than physical violence. It will be interesting to see this next season just how Pete's relationship with Trudy progresses now that he knows what he did to Peggy. That's assuming she and the silver ever come back to him.
You know Jackie something has gone very wrong in Pete's life. His relationship with his father and mother alone gives a little insight why he's so abusive. Who knows what he has gone through in school and his attemps to get a date for the dance. He has grown up to be a jerk! Even Don Draper can't stomach him, he didn't even want to shake his hand after that meeting. He needs to see Betty's shrink. Maybe a good old punch in the kisser like Don laid on Jimmy Barrett. He needs help. He better watch the dog kicking, it just might bite him like Michael Vick.
Like you, I did find the scenes between Pete and Trudy painful to watch, which is a high compliment to the two fine actors who portray those characters. Unfortunately, as a very young teen at that time, I saw many relationships like that. Not my parents, as my mother was an independent working woman and my father a gentle man, but many other couples I knew, both unmarried and married.
I think that kind of dynamic between men and women was pretty common in that era. There was a lot of hitting of females accepted at that time, as well, even in public. One did not "interfere in family matters," as I remember it being called.
Lots of violence and abuse went on in the homes behind those picket fences.
You think it the behavior between men and women was pretty common in that era....umm can you say Chris Brown and Rhianna? They have it publically on display and want to be friends.
Good post, jackie and everyone...yes, I was uncomfortable watching the fights between Pete and Trudy...I think it odd that he seemed "in love" with her (as much as Pete CAN really be in love, that is) in the first epi when he picked up the picture of her (which was not Alison Brie!) and talked with affection about her to "the guys" the day of his bachelor party... (but, Pete being Pete also came on to the chick at the club that night!)...also when he got back from his honeymoon and was talking about how "what the minister says about you both becoming one and all that....that's really true...." (or similar words)...then his feelings change ...maybe the pressure she put on him (she was desperate for a baby...and he could only see that she was giving HIM a hard time about it) and the problems with her demanding the new, more expensive place before he felt they could really afford it... plus all the trouble with her parents butting in on the baby situation.... and his father refusing to help him pay for the new place, and don't even get me started on his mother...what a nut case (where he got it?) I think he felt he was in the pressure cooker all around...still no excuse to be verbally abusive to Trudy (although one can certainly see how he got so screwed up!)....I just wish they'd get divorced and he and Peggy would get together...although she probably won't let him go easily, I think Trudy really loves Pete, the blind idiot. What she said to him about being immature during the "chicken throwing" fight was certainly on the mark. Wow, what a mess!
I mentioned about Pete "coming on to the chick at the club".... left out going to Peggy's apt. after the party and that's much worse...although whether he would have done that if the blonde who spurned him had been more accomodating, who knows?
Do you remember early on when Pete had some kind of story he wanted published - then learned that Trudy's former boyfriend was in the publishing business? He had no qualms (love that word!) about telling Trudy to visit her old friend and see what she could do to get Pete's story published. That was emotional blackmail/abuse, if you ask me.
It's ALL about Pete. He master - she slave, so to speak. It goes back to the way he was raised. Pete's father, instead of admitting he was broke when Pete asked for his financial help to get the apartment, told Pete, in so many words, to suck an egg. It's all about appearances. Dad/Pete hold the purse strings and Mom/Trudy must bow and obey the master. I'm not sure it is about Trudy's self-esteem so much as it is about fulfilling the fairytale concept of finding prince charming and living happily every after, no matter how terrible the reality is. It's still the early 60s and we haven't yet heard from Gloria Steinhem (sp) and NOW.
Pete, too is playing/living the role of a quasi-prince charming. He has his (mentally) sleeping beauty, Trudy, but that doesn't keep him from checking out the other lovelies in his realm.
His relationship with Peggy is on a different, maybe a lower level than what he has with Trudy. Peggy is a working girl from a more humble background. I think he had little or no respect for Peggy in the beginning. She certainly wasn't the kind of girl Pete would even consider marrying, but he was attracted to her. Probably because he considered her "easy pickings". His reaction to her at the bar where she asked him to come dance with her was typical Pete. She was being herself, having fun and wanted him to enjoy dancing with her. He wasn't about to let his real feelings show, so, he contemptuously turned it around to make her feel she was doing something despicable. More emotional abuse on his part, learned at his papa's knee.
Sexy-tary, yes, you are right, it still goes on. But, there is a big difference because now if someone sees that behavior in public, it will get reported. When I was a kid and teenager, it was commonplace to see men slapping women in public - not quite as common as seeing children get spanked, but pretty common as I remember. The societal attitude at that time, was not to intrude in personal affairs. Today's attitude is to get it on the camera phone! (Recently got one of these myself - I see why the young folks like them so much.)
Wow...so much food for thought in these great comments...I'll just go chronologically, knowing I won't do justice to each interesting idea, but here goes:
Z: "...assuming she and THE SILVER ever come back to him..." Giggle. That puts Trudy in more perspective...she doesn't exactly go the head of the class for her own value system either, does she?...Maybe she deserves Pete...?!
Pinkpen: "...who knows what he's gone through in school and his attempts to get a date for the dance..." Agreed... He was probably the pimply-faced, un-popular, snarky-type kid who might have turned into a sensitive adult Male, but instead turns into a jerk . But boo-hoo. If he'd been female, he'd have been the pimply-faced, un-popular "wall-flower" whose only probabe option is "spinsterhood," --living a dreary, lonely life with her cat -- or maybe multiple cats!
Not dog-kicking, but another problem for the Humane Society nonetheless..
(Loved your warning to Pete to: " watch the dog kicking, it just might bite him like Michal Vick." )! LOL
Chopin47: First, I want to "second" your tribute to the fine acting in those difficult scenes between Pete and Trudy. I so agree, and my feeling is underscored by the fact that this is the first time I've even thought about their acting...I was that absorbed in their character portrayals.
I am blown away by your insight into the "darker" aspects of this topic...namely the somehat "tragic" reality of the acceptance of psychic (and physical) violence against the "weaker" sex and children during that period.
And yes, that dictum of propriety and rule of "proper behaviour" that: "One doesn't interfere in family matters" ... does ring a bell! Eeeww...
It was considered more "correct" and proper to mind one's own business, I guess. (I can just picture a scarey physical-violence scene being carried out in a public place, and the "observers" trying to (politely) avert their eyes while they silently thought to themselves, "Glad it's not me (or us)" !!
I would like it if more of those "nicely codified/summarized rules of proper behavior" from that era were added into the show. They tell so much (in so few words) about what the "code" of behavior was back then. And they are so authentic ...because as I read and re-read that phrase (above)...I eventually remembered hearing it!!
It reminded me of Betty's phrase at the picnic in Season One: "It's not polite to talk about money."
Those type phrases were evidently felt to be as authentic as if they were written "on tablets in stone."
SCfan: Good analysis on the possible "explanation" (if not justification) of Pete's bad behavior. You almost have ME giving the guy a second look.
( Pete needs a "shrink" who can see "his side,"-- like you do. I think he feels like "nobody knows 'da trouble he's seen..." and that fact adds to his frustration).
On another note, (off-topic) I wanted to tell you that something you said in a long-ago post on some long-forgotten thread struck me; and I have thought about it more than once since then. In fact, it gave "clarity" to an issue that existed in a past relationship I had. And I considered it a little "pearl." Thank you.
rozsie...! I am so glad you recalled the "book-publishing "incident" regarding Pete and Trudy.
That, to me, was so shocking that it's almost not even on the table for me when I think/talk about Pete's failings. To me, that's in a whole different (much more serious) category.
More than just Pete's garden-variety abuse, it sounded to me like he was actually trying to PIMP OUT his wife! And to me that's "so far out there...beyond the pale"... (of ordinary upper-middle class behavior) that I wonder if it was a "writer's mis-step or false note."
This isn't a story of fast and loose "Hollywood" where one might find it more believalbe that "loose etthics/sexual favors" and MAYBE even pimping out wives was all "part of business," and/or "getting the part," etc.
Rather, this is upper-middle class New York "old money" in the case of Trudy and Pete. Did those type people do that type of thing? If not, was it the writers who jumped the shark, or was it Pete whose wacky, desperate mind jumped the shark??
Whichever it was, I was amazed that Trudy just swept that little incident under the rather dusty rug of her mind...and went on, business as usual.
If she didn't walk out on him over THAT....well, I guess she on some level senses that she is like a "lady of the evening," -- and maybe that feeling comes from, as you suggested, marrying not for who the man really was, but to "fullfill the fairytale."
Yes. Pete was born with a silver foot in his mouth. He's snarky and all the rest. However, let me play devil's advocate for just a sec:
Trudy totally steamrolled him by going over his
objections, which were economically reasonable, about buying the apartment. She ignores the fact that he is not ready to become a parent because she is programmed to do just that. She is a spoiled child/wife who runs to Daddy and Daddy always interferes, leaving Pete's balls in her purse. Not a recipe for a happy marriage. Trudy is dangerously ignoring the fact that there are two people in the marriage, not just Trudy playing house.
Yes, Flower, there are always two sides to every story. While Pete is a jerk, he is, and I've said this before on an earlier thread, a tragic character, full of insecurities and desperation (I mentioned it in reference to Don's sometimes inability to pick up on social cues and other people's feelings). I love jackie's description of Pete as the pimply faced, unpopular kid. I'm sure that's why Vincent K was cast in that role, not a classically good-looking actor, more like Ken, for example.
And I don't know if Pete intended for Trudy to actually sleep with her editor friend, just use their old relationship to pressure him into publishing Pete's story.
And don't forget that Pete picked up that model in the SC elevator, went home with her, and had sex, while her mother was in the next room!!!! EEEWWW!
These are all good comments. The bottom line is that Pete's a jerk.
Mambo, wouldn't it be interesting if that same model became pregnant after her encounter with Pete? Did he ask if she was on "The Pill" before he had sex with her?
With all the careless sex that goes on in this show, I wonder if anyone considers using protection. Peggy still became pregnant, even though she was on "The Pill" (remember she went to see Joan's doctor in the very first episode) and the possibility of spreading an STD can still happen.
Right, chatty pattie, Pete did ask her that. And that reminds me that he actually gave the model his business card with his name and phone number on it! What a bonehead; I bet you anything she does get pregnant and she can track him down. This should be interesting.
Flowerpower, I find Trudy an addition to Pete's problem, she's not wired correctly either. She lives to the drum beat of her father's expectations, as you said so very well "Pete's balls in her purse" like some sort of hand sanitizer. How in the world did they hook up in the first place. She seems desperate to even marry Pete. I'm sure she had more suitable prospects in her social circle, but no......she marries the jack---. Pete never having any respect or control in his own family, now has the opportunity to be in charge. Needless to say it's his litlle woman whom he abuses daily for his shortcomings at SC. He rants around the office wanting kudo's from Don, an affair with Peggy and thinks anyone that doesn't see his potiential for a promotion, as the dog in the corner. Pete is always trying to find any bone during the course of the day to run to Bert or Roger hoping he can get Don's job. His hope is to make enough money at SC so he can tell his father -in-law to jump in front of the train. He really is a jerk, a desperate jerk. As for Trudy, she just doesn't know any better.
Trudy married Pete for the Dyckman family name. (Remember how she told that story to the real estate agent). There's a street named after the Dyckmans in upper Manhattan. I've always thought that Trudy's family, while fairly wealthy, were not in the Dyckman/Campbell league as far as pedigrees go. Trudy was probably the best Pete could do; she's a very pretty girl, and like I said, her family has some money, but I'm sure his parents don't consider her "their kind of people".
jackie_monroe: Excellent post and interesting point regarding minding your own business and proper behavior at the time. But I think that attitude changed after the Kitty Genovese murder in 1964.
As I remember, Kitty Genovese was on her way home in Queens, NY when she was stabbed and murdered. She screamed for help for half and hour as witnesses in the surrounding apartment buildings did nothing to help her; not wanting to get involved. I remember the shame that fell over NYC after that incident and the many vows that were made to never behave that way again.
I'm sure some posters never heard of this incident, but it may have been the cornerstone that started to change the “Glad it’s not me” attitude of our culture at that time.
...485Madison.... Wow, it's gratifying that you remember an event that, while tragic, ultimately contributed as a 'step forward' in our awareness and humanity. Despite the terrible grief it surely was to her family and friends, I hope that some solace would have been realized by them through an understanding of of how "momentous" that "break-through" ultimately was.
I'm sure they wondered why it was "their" daughter/wife/sister/ mother or friend who had to be 'sacrified,' however. It makes me feel very somber, and puts into perspective (for a short while anyway) how petty are my own daily trials.
For some reason, all this reminds me of the English poet, John Dunne's line....
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls....it tolls
for thee....
I remember the Kitty Genovese murder very well. I can still recall the adults in my family talking about New York City like it was on some distant planet and how awful it must be to live in such a terrible place with such cold and callous people for neighbors. They conveniently forgot an equally gruesome murder of a high school girl that happened in our little burg just a few weeks before the Genovese murder.
Winston Moseley, the confessed murderer of Miss Genovese, is coming up for parole next year, I believe. It is to be hoped he does not get released, as he has never expressed remorse or regret for any of the murders he committed. In fact, he is on record as saying that victims have it easy in that their deaths are quick, but those who are caught and sent to jail have to suffer. I doubt Miss Genovese would agree that her death was quick when he admits he attacked her with a knife not once, but three times during the 30 minutes he stalked her.
I wonder if this famous New York crime will be mentioned at some point on Mad Men. As 485Madison says, it had a huge impact on New York City.
@zeralda July 3 @ 9:08 PM...maybe it will be worked into the show somehow...based on what you and 485Madison say...it was one of those wrenching events that The Press took the ball and ran with...making sure it seeped into our culural conscionsness...and forever changing us.
Another biggie that's got to be coming is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (I'm sure that has been mentioned by other bloggers as a plot source in Season 3, but I thought of it today when reading
a NYT colunminst on the Supreme Court's "Ricci" decision last Monday).
Btw, I wanted to make a correction to my quote of John Donne, above. (Mispelled his name, too -- sorry John!). The line I was referring to is:
"...Therefore never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
thee...."
That's from Donne's "XVII Meditation" in his book " Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions" --for anyone who may be interested.
Google-derived info said that Frank O'Hara meant for "Meditations in an Emergencey" to be a play off of the title of Donne's work.
It took one woman to be killed for a city to wake up. It took millions to die for nations to wake up, wow! To think some countries still don't get. Women are still being treated like second class citizens.
.....I wasn't there, so didn't know all those details, but the story is infamous, and most definitely colored my earliest impression of New York City as a fearsome place, and NOT a place anyone wimpy would survive.
This is a very closed perception, obviously, but there haven't been a ton of movies depicting NYC as a warm and fuzzy place to exist.
It might EVEN be, not sure, that Sex and the City was first the vehicle that allowed someone never having been there to realize that NYC has much that's wonderful, and there are even some safe places to live, in the right neighborhoods.
Dry, NYC is heaven! If you like theater, art, music, restaurants, historic sites, museums, you name it, any or all of the above, it's there. If we could afford it, my husband and I would live there. And according to FBI statistics, it's the safest large city in the country. The one I live near (70 miles, but not far enough for me), Atlanta, is the least safe.
And probably Woody Allen, starting in the 70s, was one of the first to glamorize NY in movies, but some older movies showed it in a favorable light, too.
As far as movies that show NYC in a positive light..."Moonstruck" comes to mind...plus it's a fantastic movie IMHO....I know there are lots of others, can't think of more right now...Maddicts?
Just saw "Whatever Works", a really funny movie about a group of New Yorkers. Woody Allen shows he is once again the master of the story about some of the neurotic and off center characters living in the city.
...Yeah, Chauncey was almost literaly kicked to the curb by our favorite web-footed Duck...who seems to like to do his kicking at the office (Chauncey, Freddy).... Duck probably doesn't have anybody at home to kick...When I try to think what kind of "pet" Duck might have to keep him company at home, the best I come up with is...(anybody remember Pet Rocks)?
.....Those are all great movies, but still portray New York cinematically not as a warm fuzzy place a foreigner like me could survive, but as a sophisticated maze to be negotiated successfully by only the savviest of veteran New Yorkers.
I mean, the SUBWAY?? Taxis? Yee Gawds, people really do live that way. And forGET about winter!
I don't know why I'm prattling on about it.....I guess because the crew of SATC were more like "Everywomen".....that is to say I didn't relate to them as New Yorkers, per se, since none of them had any trace of an accent, and they more closely resembled me and my girlfriends and our issues of the day than any Woody Allen movie.
Ditto with the character of NYC. Seeing it through Carrie's or Samantha's or Charlotte's eyes is a very different experience from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
While I adore that movie and Audrey Hepburn, it was still very much about a maiden in peril in the big bad city.
I'm telling you, the Kitty Genovese incident was as big or bigger than the posters are saying here. It spawned quite the fright, that I think rippled through more than one generation.
Saying all that, I LOVE all the movies with a New York backdrop that are mentioned here, and more. There are so many!
Don't forget that whole Son of Sam business back in the 70s. That scared the beejeesus out of me - I just knew that was no place for little old me. Back then there seemed to be this whole mind set that New Yorkers were mean and tough and took nothing off nobody. It was reflected in movies and TV shows. Even comedies like "Rhoda" showed New Yorkers as tough, and Johhny Carson joked about it every night until he left for LA. Remember the Jack Lemmon movie about the man and his wife who go to NYC and get mugged and have all sorts of problems? Then there was "Serpico", so everyone knew you wouldn't get much help from the police.
Finally somebody decided it was time to change their image when the city was going bankrupt. Times Square got cleaned up and suddenly there were movies like "When Harry Met Sally" with wonderful images of New York.
I started a thread back in January called "New York New York It's a Wonderful Town" and asked folks to share their memories of NYC. There were some great stories posted.
I think the single most important thing to change my perception of New York had to be 9/11. Watching what those folks went through that day and the weeks that followed showed me New Yorkers really are pretty tough folks, but still able to reach out and help each other when the need arises.
.....The foreign-ness of the series is one of the things that intrigues me the most, and the fascinating posts from the people who lived on the opposite coast, then and now.
All those New York recollections are like stories from Mars!
Yes, NY in the 70s was pretty dismal, I must admit. Times Square was a toilet, what with all the porn and the live sex shows, and the panhandlers and mentally ill homeless were a big problem (I don't know where they are, but you hardly ever see a bag lady there now). But it has really cleaned up its act. And Dry, I would think it's harder for a stranger to navigate around LA than NY, mainly because of the subways, taxis, etc that are available. Heck, you can walk most of the time.
Z's thread had some very enjoyable memories on it.
And Chauncey's probably living with Samantha and Mr. Big now.
I will say that L.A. was a nice place to visit (this was back in the mid '80's)....Disneyland was fun and the Chinese Theater and having a Cobb Salad at the Brown Derby and looking at the Walk of Fame (goes on for miles!) and the HOLLYWOOD sign on the hill and the Hollywood Bowl and The Queen Mary (hotel now) and The Spruce Goose and the beaches....it was all fun, but we were ready to leave when the time came.
I gather your husband works in the film industry, Dry, (from your posts over on the Michael Jackson thread) so you guys pretty much need to live there, huh? I'm sure there are worse places.
There are several family members in entertainment, but hubby is no longer in the business, at least for now.
Trust me, a lot of people in entertainment are essentially exactly the same as you and me, only with better-paying jobs, more ass-kissing, and all the swag they can swipe.
Well.....there IS the whole "evolving into a disconnected freak" thing, if you've been living in the bubble for any length of time.
Tell you what the funny thing there is, you've seen all those things in L.A., and, apart from Disneyland, I've never seen any of those things, and I've lived here my whole life!!
I am not a big fan of Pete. Take as a fact that Pete is not a nice guy. Cheats on his wife, willing to stab anyone and everyone in the back to get ahead...
Whereas... Trudy was raised as Daddy's Little Princess. She, for whatever reason, was not willing to stay down in the weeds with what Pete could afford when they married. Pete's Dad, even though he slammed Pete, giving him a bunch of crap, was doing the right thing. Pete had to make it on his own before he'd shine in Daddy's eyes because he was in a profession Daddy didn't respect. So Trudy went off and persuaded her Daddy to give the money to set them up in a high-rise apartment. Which also cut off Pete's balls because he wanted to make it on his own.
That Pete sent Trudy to see what she could do to get his story published - he saw that as networking, not pimping.
Finally, Trudy becoming Mommy. She doesn't comprehend that Pete really doesn't want kids, not right now, not as a dependent for the next eighteen to twenty-plus years. Maybe in the future but NOT NOW! Maybe never. (That he already was one was a surprise which turned into a shock.) Trudy got Daddy to push first the try harder at home and then for adoption. I almost cheered when Pete finally (in so many words) told him to shove it where the sun don't shine.
Pete's feeling his way through life, getting slapped down by Don and others until he proves himself. Here, at home, he wants to be in charge and if it takes a roast chicken flying out the window or sitting up, a .22 rifle in his hand... He's getting there.
.....Ritt.....In retrospect, I really feel the reason Pete doesn't want children is that he has been in love with Peggy all this time, as we found out in Meditations....
I don't think he was in love with Trudy, ever, not really. I think he was "marrying well," and didn't know what "in love" was until he came to know Peggy.
It's no wonder since, as you pointed out, Pete is under castration on a good many important, what should be private, marital issues. The scene where she heads to her parents' house for the crisis weekend, and he stays behind was pretty glaring to me.
She says "If you loved me you'd want to be with me..." and his only reply is, "You're right. I'll pack the car."
Killed me.
I liked the part where Pete gets a backbone and stands up to his father-in-law. It has been fun watching him gain a little confidence, a modicum of integrity and a few key accolades, as well as finally connecting with an authentic emotion.
.....I forgot to say, again, that I've seen Vincent Kartheiser in a few other things, and I'm telling you, I forget any other character ever existed when I watch him spinning "Pete."
He's another one who, if he isn't nominated soon, I'm going to shave Geraldo's moustache.
.....As to the former post, the minute you start thinking the characters are not monsters is the instant they do that flippy-floppy thing and turn them all "Dr. Evil."
There's nothing very authentic about Pete and Trudy's relationship. They act like children "playing house" and they both have very different agendas. Trudy wants a baby and an apartment in the right part of town; Pete wants to be successful at work. They don't appear to be on the same page and their basic needs and goals don't mesh. They are both immature and need to get to know each other better before making big life decisions. Their marriage is probably not that different from many marriages of that era.
So what is Pete going to do if he doesn't have Trudy to kick around anymore?
I wish I had thought to ask Vincent K.-- (under "Ask the Actors" Blog)-- if Pete is fully aware of the extent to which he has been emotionally abusive to Trudy...OR...if her mild, eager- to- please responses to his abuse (except for the chicken scene) have him believing that he's not treating her that badly at all?
Under the theory that some people will treat their emotionally abused " victim" just as badly as the victim will tolerate, I think it's a good thing for Trudy that Pete is "blowing her off." ( So that Trudy can get away from him-- -even though it didn't appear to be her choice as Season II ended).
Only when she's out from under his domain will Trudy have her "awakening," and begin to realize how horribly she has been treated by her husband--(and as a corrollary to that, what low self-esteem she has). I see her as perhaps the most un-self-aware of all the females on the show-- (in a way, even more insidiously abused that Joan's rape-- Certainly more on-going.
Joan KNOWS what happened to her at the hands of her "guy." Trudy still has that to learn, and it will be a long, hard, emotional trip for Trudy to learn/accept that ...(Denial ain't just a river in Egypt)....
She needs to gain some self respect -- once she realizes she never had any---and unfortunately, that's not done over-night. And the poor girl's already in her ...what...late twenties?!! How's she going to "get right" in time to attract a winner-type guy?
And P.S.:
Did anyone else besides me find some of those husband-wife scenes between Pete- the- Emotional- Abuser and Trudy- the- People- Pleaser painful to watch? The demeaning tone and manner in which he spoke to her, and her non-reaction to it --as though this was the normal way two people in love inter-act!!
Be that as it may, I think that Pete will end up being the one who, in the end, suffers the longest and the most deeply over the marriage.. He'll end up having those regrets that you carry into old age...those regrets for having treated someone very badly and/or hurt someone signficantly...and it's in the past and unchangeble so you live with the guilt.
He may get over PEGGY. The surprise may be that he ultimately is never able to get over TRUDY. (JMHO).
Really good post, Jackie, and yes, I agree about it being painful to watch Pete and Trudy's scenes. Emotional abuse is no more easy to watch than physical violence. It will be interesting to see this next season just how Pete's relationship with Trudy progresses now that he knows what he did to Peggy. That's assuming she and the silver ever come back to him.
You know Jackie something has gone very wrong in Pete's life. His relationship with his father and mother alone gives a little insight why he's so abusive. Who knows what he has gone through in school and his attemps to get a date for the dance. He has grown up to be a jerk! Even Don Draper can't stomach him, he didn't even want to shake his hand after that meeting. He needs to see Betty's shrink. Maybe a good old punch in the kisser like Don laid on Jimmy Barrett. He needs help. He better watch the dog kicking, it just might bite him like Michael Vick.
Jackie,
Like you, I did find the scenes between Pete and Trudy painful to watch, which is a high compliment to the two fine actors who portray those characters. Unfortunately, as a very young teen at that time, I saw many relationships like that. Not my parents, as my mother was an independent working woman and my father a gentle man, but many other couples I knew, both unmarried and married.
I think that kind of dynamic between men and women was pretty common in that era. There was a lot of hitting of females accepted at that time, as well, even in public. One did not "interfere in family matters," as I remember it being called.
Lots of violence and abuse went on in the homes behind those picket fences.
You think it the behavior between men and women was pretty common in that era....umm can you say Chris Brown and Rhianna? They have it publically on display and want to be friends.
Typical - between men and women.
Good post, jackie and everyone...yes, I was uncomfortable watching the fights between Pete and Trudy...I think it odd that he seemed "in love" with her (as much as Pete CAN really be in love, that is) in the first epi when he picked up the picture of her (which was not Alison Brie!) and talked with affection about her to "the guys" the day of his bachelor party... (but, Pete being Pete also came on to the chick at the club that night!)...also when he got back from his honeymoon and was talking about how "what the minister says about you both becoming one and all that....that's really true...." (or similar words)...then his feelings change ...maybe the pressure she put on him (she was desperate for a baby...and he could only see that she was giving HIM a hard time about it) and the problems with her demanding the new, more expensive place before he felt they could really afford it... plus all the trouble with her parents butting in on the baby situation.... and his father refusing to help him pay for the new place, and don't even get me started on his mother...what a nut case (where he got it?) I think he felt he was in the pressure cooker all around...still no excuse to be verbally abusive to Trudy (although one can certainly see how he got so screwed up!)....I just wish they'd get divorced and he and Peggy would get together...although she probably won't let him go easily, I think Trudy really loves Pete, the blind idiot. What she said to him about being immature during the "chicken throwing" fight was certainly on the mark. Wow, what a mess!
I mentioned about Pete "coming on to the chick at the club".... left out going to Peggy's apt. after the party and that's much worse...although whether he would have done that if the blonde who spurned him had been more accomodating, who knows?
What a messed up guy...among many at SC!
Good insight and comments here fellow Maddicts!
Do you remember early on when Pete had some kind of story he wanted published - then learned that Trudy's former boyfriend was in the publishing business? He had no qualms (love that word!) about telling Trudy to visit her old friend and see what she could do to get Pete's story published. That was emotional blackmail/abuse, if you ask me.
It's ALL about Pete. He master - she slave, so to speak. It goes back to the way he was raised. Pete's father, instead of admitting he was broke when Pete asked for his financial help to get the apartment, told Pete, in so many words, to suck an egg. It's all about appearances. Dad/Pete hold the purse strings and Mom/Trudy must bow and obey the master. I'm not sure it is about Trudy's self-esteem so much as it is about fulfilling the fairytale concept of finding prince charming and living happily every after, no matter how terrible the reality is. It's still the early 60s and we haven't yet heard from Gloria Steinhem (sp) and NOW.
Pete, too is playing/living the role of a quasi-prince charming. He has his (mentally) sleeping beauty, Trudy, but that doesn't keep him from checking out the other lovelies in his realm.
His relationship with Peggy is on a different, maybe a lower level than what he has with Trudy. Peggy is a working girl from a more humble background. I think he had little or no respect for Peggy in the beginning. She certainly wasn't the kind of girl Pete would even consider marrying, but he was attracted to her. Probably because he considered her "easy pickings". His reaction to her at the bar where she asked him to come dance with her was typical Pete. She was being herself, having fun and wanted him to enjoy dancing with her. He wasn't about to let his real feelings show, so, he contemptuously turned it around to make her feel she was doing something despicable. More emotional abuse on his part, learned at his papa's knee.
Sexy-tary, yes, you are right, it still goes on. But, there is a big difference because now if someone sees that behavior in public, it will get reported. When I was a kid and teenager, it was commonplace to see men slapping women in public - not quite as common as seeing children get spanked, but pretty common as I remember. The societal attitude at that time, was not to intrude in personal affairs. Today's attitude is to get it on the camera phone! (Recently got one of these myself - I see why the young folks like them so much.)
Wow...so much food for thought in these great comments...I'll just go chronologically, knowing I won't do justice to each interesting idea, but here goes:
Z: "...assuming she and THE SILVER ever come back to him..." Giggle. That puts Trudy in more perspective...she doesn't exactly go the head of the class for her own value system either, does she?...Maybe she deserves Pete...?!
Pinkpen: "...who knows what he's gone through in school and his attempts to get a date for the dance..." Agreed... He was probably the pimply-faced, un-popular, snarky-type kid who might have turned into a sensitive adult Male, but instead turns into a jerk . But boo-hoo. If he'd been female, he'd have been the pimply-faced, un-popular "wall-flower" whose only probabe option is "spinsterhood," --living a dreary, lonely life with her cat -- or maybe multiple cats!
Not dog-kicking, but another problem for the Humane Society nonetheless..
(Loved your warning to Pete to: " watch the dog kicking, it just might bite him like Michal Vick." )! LOL
Chopin47: First, I want to "second" your tribute to the fine acting in those difficult scenes between Pete and Trudy. I so agree, and my feeling is underscored by the fact that this is the first time I've even thought about their acting...I was that absorbed in their character portrayals.
I am blown away by your insight into the "darker" aspects of this topic...namely the somehat "tragic" reality of the acceptance of psychic (and physical) violence against the "weaker" sex and children during that period.
And yes, that dictum of propriety and rule of "proper behaviour" that: "One doesn't interfere in family matters" ... does ring a bell! Eeeww...
It was considered more "correct" and proper to mind one's own business, I guess. (I can just picture a scarey physical-violence scene being carried out in a public place, and the "observers" trying to (politely) avert their eyes while they silently thought to themselves, "Glad it's not me (or us)" !!
I would like it if more of those "nicely codified/summarized rules of proper behavior" from that era were added into the show. They tell so much (in so few words) about what the "code" of behavior was back then. And they are so authentic ...because as I read and re-read that phrase (above)...I eventually remembered hearing it!!
It reminded me of Betty's phrase at the picnic in Season One: "It's not polite to talk about money."
Those type phrases were evidently felt to be as authentic as if they were written "on tablets in stone."
Sexy-tary: Hmmm....CB and Rhi...very good point; very good example.
SCfan: Good analysis on the possible "explanation" (if not justification) of Pete's bad behavior. You almost have ME giving the guy a second look.
( Pete needs a "shrink" who can see "his side,"-- like you do. I think he feels like "nobody knows 'da trouble he's seen..." and that fact adds to his frustration).
On another note, (off-topic) I wanted to tell you that something you said in a long-ago post on some long-forgotten thread struck me; and I have thought about it more than once since then. In fact, it gave "clarity" to an issue that existed in a past relationship I had. And I considered it a little "pearl." Thank you.
rozsie...! I am so glad you recalled the "book-publishing "incident" regarding Pete and Trudy.
That, to me, was so shocking that it's almost not even on the table for me when I think/talk about Pete's failings. To me, that's in a whole different (much more serious) category.
More than just Pete's garden-variety abuse, it sounded to me like he was actually trying to PIMP OUT his wife! And to me that's "so far out there...beyond the pale"... (of ordinary upper-middle class behavior) that I wonder if it was a "writer's mis-step or false note."
This isn't a story of fast and loose "Hollywood" where one might find it more believalbe that "loose etthics/sexual favors" and MAYBE even pimping out wives was all "part of business," and/or "getting the part," etc.
Rather, this is upper-middle class New York "old money" in the case of Trudy and Pete. Did those type people do that type of thing? If not, was it the writers who jumped the shark, or was it Pete whose wacky, desperate mind jumped the shark??
Whichever it was, I was amazed that Trudy just swept that little incident under the rather dusty rug of her mind...and went on, business as usual.
If she didn't walk out on him over THAT....well, I guess she on some level senses that she is like a "lady of the evening," -- and maybe that feeling comes from, as you suggested, marrying not for who the man really was, but to "fullfill the fairytale."
Yes. Pete was born with a silver foot in his mouth. He's snarky and all the rest. However, let me play devil's advocate for just a sec:
Trudy totally steamrolled him by going over his
objections, which were economically reasonable, about buying the apartment. She ignores the fact that he is not ready to become a parent because she is programmed to do just that. She is a spoiled child/wife who runs to Daddy and Daddy always interferes, leaving Pete's balls in her purse. Not a recipe for a happy marriage. Trudy is dangerously ignoring the fact that there are two people in the marriage, not just Trudy playing house.
Yes, Flower, there are always two sides to every story. While Pete is a jerk, he is, and I've said this before on an earlier thread, a tragic character, full of insecurities and desperation (I mentioned it in reference to Don's sometimes inability to pick up on social cues and other people's feelings). I love jackie's description of Pete as the pimply faced, unpopular kid. I'm sure that's why Vincent K was cast in that role, not a classically good-looking actor, more like Ken, for example.
And I don't know if Pete intended for Trudy to actually sleep with her editor friend, just use their old relationship to pressure him into publishing Pete's story.
And don't forget that Pete picked up that model in the SC elevator, went home with her, and had sex, while her mother was in the next room!!!! EEEWWW!
These are all good comments. The bottom line is that Pete's a jerk.
Mambo, wouldn't it be interesting if that same model became pregnant after her encounter with Pete? Did he ask if she was on "The Pill" before he had sex with her?
With all the careless sex that goes on in this show, I wonder if anyone considers using protection. Peggy still became pregnant, even though she was on "The Pill" (remember she went to see Joan's doctor in the very first episode) and the possibility of spreading an STD can still happen.
Chatty
Right, chatty pattie, Pete did ask her that. And that reminds me that he actually gave the model his business card with his name and phone number on it! What a bonehead; I bet you anything she does get pregnant and she can track him down. This should be interesting.
Flowerpower, I find Trudy an addition to Pete's problem, she's not wired correctly either. She lives to the drum beat of her father's expectations, as you said so very well "Pete's balls in her purse" like some sort of hand sanitizer. How in the world did they hook up in the first place. She seems desperate to even marry Pete. I'm sure she had more suitable prospects in her social circle, but no......she marries the jack---. Pete never having any respect or control in his own family, now has the opportunity to be in charge. Needless to say it's his litlle woman whom he abuses daily for his shortcomings at SC. He rants around the office wanting kudo's from Don, an affair with Peggy and thinks anyone that doesn't see his potiential for a promotion, as the dog in the corner. Pete is always trying to find any bone during the course of the day to run to Bert or Roger hoping he can get Don's job. His hope is to make enough money at SC so he can tell his father -in-law to jump in front of the train. He really is a jerk, a desperate jerk. As for Trudy, she just doesn't know any better.
jackie...thanks! made my day....
Trudy married Pete for the Dyckman family name. (Remember how she told that story to the real estate agent). There's a street named after the Dyckmans in upper Manhattan. I've always thought that Trudy's family, while fairly wealthy, were not in the Dyckman/Campbell league as far as pedigrees go. Trudy was probably the best Pete could do; she's a very pretty girl, and like I said, her family has some money, but I'm sure his parents don't consider her "their kind of people".
jackie_monroe: Excellent post and interesting point regarding minding your own business and proper behavior at the time. But I think that attitude changed after the Kitty Genovese murder in 1964.
As I remember, Kitty Genovese was on her way home in Queens, NY when she was stabbed and murdered. She screamed for help for half and hour as witnesses in the surrounding apartment buildings did nothing to help her; not wanting to get involved. I remember the shame that fell over NYC after that incident and the many vows that were made to never behave that way again.
I'm sure some posters never heard of this incident, but it may have been the cornerstone that started to change the “Glad it’s not me” attitude of our culture at that time.
...485Madison.... Wow, it's gratifying that you remember an event that, while tragic, ultimately contributed as a 'step forward' in our awareness and humanity. Despite the terrible grief it surely was to her family and friends, I hope that some solace would have been realized by them through an understanding of of how "momentous" that "break-through" ultimately was.
I'm sure they wondered why it was "their" daughter/wife/sister/ mother or friend who had to be 'sacrified,' however. It makes me feel very somber, and puts into perspective (for a short while anyway) how petty are my own daily trials.
For some reason, all this reminds me of the English poet, John Dunne's line....
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls....it tolls
for thee....
Thank you for that great, thought-provoking post.
I remember the Kitty Genovese murder very well. I can still recall the adults in my family talking about New York City like it was on some distant planet and how awful it must be to live in such a terrible place with such cold and callous people for neighbors. They conveniently forgot an equally gruesome murder of a high school girl that happened in our little burg just a few weeks before the Genovese murder.
Winston Moseley, the confessed murderer of Miss Genovese, is coming up for parole next year, I believe. It is to be hoped he does not get released, as he has never expressed remorse or regret for any of the murders he committed. In fact, he is on record as saying that victims have it easy in that their deaths are quick, but those who are caught and sent to jail have to suffer. I doubt Miss Genovese would agree that her death was quick when he admits he attacked her with a knife not once, but three times during the 30 minutes he stalked her.
I wonder if this famous New York crime will be mentioned at some point on Mad Men. As 485Madison says, it had a huge impact on New York City.
@zeralda July 3 @ 9:08 PM...maybe it will be worked into the show somehow...based on what you and 485Madison say...it was one of those wrenching events that The Press took the ball and ran with...making sure it seeped into our culural conscionsness...and forever changing us.
Another biggie that's got to be coming is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (I'm sure that has been mentioned by other bloggers as a plot source in Season 3, but I thought of it today when reading
a NYT colunminst on the Supreme Court's "Ricci" decision last Monday).
Btw, I wanted to make a correction to my quote of John Donne, above. (Mispelled his name, too -- sorry John!). The line I was referring to is:
"...Therefore never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
thee...."
That's from Donne's "XVII Meditation" in his book " Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions" --for anyone who may be interested.
Google-derived info said that Frank O'Hara meant for "Meditations in an Emergencey" to be a play off of the title of Donne's work.
It took one woman to be killed for a city to wake up. It took millions to die for nations to wake up, wow! To think some countries still don't get. Women are still being treated like second class citizens.
.....I wasn't there, so didn't know all those details, but the story is infamous, and most definitely colored my earliest impression of New York City as a fearsome place, and NOT a place anyone wimpy would survive.
This is a very closed perception, obviously, but there haven't been a ton of movies depicting NYC as a warm and fuzzy place to exist.
It might EVEN be, not sure, that Sex and the City was first the vehicle that allowed someone never having been there to realize that NYC has much that's wonderful, and there are even some safe places to live, in the right neighborhoods.
Anyone?
Dry, NYC is heaven! If you like theater, art, music, restaurants, historic sites, museums, you name it, any or all of the above, it's there. If we could afford it, my husband and I would live there. And according to FBI statistics, it's the safest large city in the country. The one I live near (70 miles, but not far enough for me), Atlanta, is the least safe.
And probably Woody Allen, starting in the 70s, was one of the first to glamorize NY in movies, but some older movies showed it in a favorable light, too.
As far as movies that show NYC in a positive light..."Moonstruck" comes to mind...plus it's a fantastic movie IMHO....I know there are lots of others, can't think of more right now...Maddicts?
Just saw "Whatever Works", a really funny movie about a group of New Yorkers. Woody Allen shows he is once again the master of the story about some of the neurotic and off center characters living in the city.
.....You know.....What would Chauncey say about this thread.....I ask you?
...Yeah, Chauncey was almost literaly kicked to the curb by our favorite web-footed Duck...who seems to like to do his kicking at the office (Chauncey, Freddy).... Duck probably doesn't have anybody at home to kick...When I try to think what kind of "pet" Duck might have to keep him company at home, the best I come up with is...(anybody remember Pet Rocks)?
Re SCfan July 6 @ 3:44PM....
The one that jumped into my mind (easy because of its title): "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - 1961.
.....Those are all great movies, but still portray New York cinematically not as a warm fuzzy place a foreigner like me could survive, but as a sophisticated maze to be negotiated successfully by only the savviest of veteran New Yorkers.
I mean, the SUBWAY?? Taxis? Yee Gawds, people really do live that way. And forGET about winter!
I don't know why I'm prattling on about it.....I guess because the crew of SATC were more like "Everywomen".....that is to say I didn't relate to them as New Yorkers, per se, since none of them had any trace of an accent, and they more closely resembled me and my girlfriends and our issues of the day than any Woody Allen movie.
Ditto with the character of NYC. Seeing it through Carrie's or Samantha's or Charlotte's eyes is a very different experience from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
While I adore that movie and Audrey Hepburn, it was still very much about a maiden in peril in the big bad city.
I'm telling you, the Kitty Genovese incident was as big or bigger than the posters are saying here. It spawned quite the fright, that I think rippled through more than one generation.
Saying all that, I LOVE all the movies with a New York backdrop that are mentioned here, and more. There are so many!
Don't forget that whole Son of Sam business back in the 70s. That scared the beejeesus out of me - I just knew that was no place for little old me. Back then there seemed to be this whole mind set that New Yorkers were mean and tough and took nothing off nobody. It was reflected in movies and TV shows. Even comedies like "Rhoda" showed New Yorkers as tough, and Johhny Carson joked about it every night until he left for LA. Remember the Jack Lemmon movie about the man and his wife who go to NYC and get mugged and have all sorts of problems? Then there was "Serpico", so everyone knew you wouldn't get much help from the police.
Finally somebody decided it was time to change their image when the city was going bankrupt. Times Square got cleaned up and suddenly there were movies like "When Harry Met Sally" with wonderful images of New York.
I started a thread back in January called "New York New York It's a Wonderful Town" and asked folks to share their memories of NYC. There were some great stories posted.
I think the single most important thing to change my perception of New York had to be 9/11. Watching what those folks went through that day and the weeks that followed showed me New Yorkers really are pretty tough folks, but still able to reach out and help each other when the need arises.
.....The foreign-ness of the series is one of the things that intrigues me the most, and the fascinating posts from the people who lived on the opposite coast, then and now.
All those New York recollections are like stories from Mars!
Yes, NY in the 70s was pretty dismal, I must admit. Times Square was a toilet, what with all the porn and the live sex shows, and the panhandlers and mentally ill homeless were a big problem (I don't know where they are, but you hardly ever see a bag lady there now). But it has really cleaned up its act. And Dry, I would think it's harder for a stranger to navigate around LA than NY, mainly because of the subways, taxis, etc that are available. Heck, you can walk most of the time.
Z's thread had some very enjoyable memories on it.
And Chauncey's probably living with Samantha and Mr. Big now.
Yes, Chauncey is 47 years old.
Carrie and Mr. Big, I mean. Never mind. . .
.....I was going to ask if that was in dog years, or what!
Mambo.....That's funny! I guess it's whatever you are used to, but I do agree about Hellay.
No one walks anywhere, here, but no one here really wants to live in L.A. unless it's for work (entertainment).
No offense to the Hellay-nics among us.
I will say that L.A. was a nice place to visit (this was back in the mid '80's)....Disneyland was fun and the Chinese Theater and having a Cobb Salad at the Brown Derby and looking at the Walk of Fame (goes on for miles!) and the HOLLYWOOD sign on the hill and the Hollywood Bowl and The Queen Mary (hotel now) and The Spruce Goose and the beaches....it was all fun, but we were ready to leave when the time came.
I gather your husband works in the film industry, Dry, (from your posts over on the Michael Jackson thread) so you guys pretty much need to live there, huh? I'm sure there are worse places.
.....Oh hail no, we don't live in L.A.
There are several family members in entertainment, but hubby is no longer in the business, at least for now.
Trust me, a lot of people in entertainment are essentially exactly the same as you and me, only with better-paying jobs, more ass-kissing, and all the swag they can swipe.
Well.....there IS the whole "evolving into a disconnected freak" thing, if you've been living in the bubble for any length of time.
Tell you what the funny thing there is, you've seen all those things in L.A., and, apart from Disneyland, I've never seen any of those things, and I've lived here my whole life!!
It's on the list!
"essentially exactly the same as you and me"...please, Dry...no one deserves to be in that kind of a fix!
AAAhhhhhhh...is it Aug. yet??....help!
....and z, I'm teetering again.....now, where DID I put m' tamborine?!
bang...chinka....chinka....chonk!
.....And I should re-think that as a blanket statement, too.
I'd say they start out with the usual family dysfunctions like anyone, some better than others.
Entering the entertainment business doesn't exactly deepen a character. Rather, it simply takes those dysfunctions and amplifies them.
Those same dysfunctions are also often some of the strongest "skills," in terms of persuasion and success in a very shallow and cut-throat industry.
It's a very dysfunctional business.
I am not a big fan of Pete. Take as a fact that Pete is not a nice guy. Cheats on his wife, willing to stab anyone and everyone in the back to get ahead...
Whereas... Trudy was raised as Daddy's Little Princess. She, for whatever reason, was not willing to stay down in the weeds with what Pete could afford when they married. Pete's Dad, even though he slammed Pete, giving him a bunch of crap, was doing the right thing. Pete had to make it on his own before he'd shine in Daddy's eyes because he was in a profession Daddy didn't respect. So Trudy went off and persuaded her Daddy to give the money to set them up in a high-rise apartment. Which also cut off Pete's balls because he wanted to make it on his own.
That Pete sent Trudy to see what she could do to get his story published - he saw that as networking, not pimping.
Finally, Trudy becoming Mommy. She doesn't comprehend that Pete really doesn't want kids, not right now, not as a dependent for the next eighteen to twenty-plus years. Maybe in the future but NOT NOW! Maybe never. (That he already was one was a surprise which turned into a shock.) Trudy got Daddy to push first the try harder at home and then for adoption. I almost cheered when Pete finally (in so many words) told him to shove it where the sun don't shine.
Pete's feeling his way through life, getting slapped down by Don and others until he proves himself. Here, at home, he wants to be in charge and if it takes a roast chicken flying out the window or sitting up, a .22 rifle in his hand... He's getting there.
.....Ritt.....In retrospect, I really feel the reason Pete doesn't want children is that he has been in love with Peggy all this time, as we found out in Meditations....
I don't think he was in love with Trudy, ever, not really. I think he was "marrying well," and didn't know what "in love" was until he came to know Peggy.
It's no wonder since, as you pointed out, Pete is under castration on a good many important, what should be private, marital issues. The scene where she heads to her parents' house for the crisis weekend, and he stays behind was pretty glaring to me.
She says "If you loved me you'd want to be with me..." and his only reply is, "You're right. I'll pack the car."
Killed me.
I liked the part where Pete gets a backbone and stands up to his father-in-law. It has been fun watching him gain a little confidence, a modicum of integrity and a few key accolades, as well as finally connecting with an authentic emotion.
.....I forgot to say, again, that I've seen Vincent Kartheiser in a few other things, and I'm telling you, I forget any other character ever existed when I watch him spinning "Pete."
He's another one who, if he isn't nominated soon, I'm going to shave Geraldo's moustache.
.....As to the former post, the minute you start thinking the characters are not monsters is the instant they do that flippy-floppy thing and turn them all "Dr. Evil."
There's nothing very authentic about Pete and Trudy's relationship. They act like children "playing house" and they both have very different agendas. Trudy wants a baby and an apartment in the right part of town; Pete wants to be successful at work. They don't appear to be on the same page and their basic needs and goals don't mesh. They are both immature and need to get to know each other better before making big life decisions. Their marriage is probably not that different from many marriages of that era.