This season opened with the reporter from Advertising Age asking who is the real Don Draper, and it closes having gotten not much forwarder on the question.
This season opened with the reporter from Advertising Age asking who is the real Don Draper, and it closes having gotten not much forwarder on the question.
Such a good episode this week.
I can’t be the only one a wee bit put off by the much-lauded Banksy-directed opening to the Simpsons last night [embedded video apparently no longer works] can I?
I know the token reaction today is “I can’t believe Fox aired it!” But, aired it they did, and we’re left to pick up the pieces of what that decision means for telling the truth. In this instance, we’re dutifully rewarded for being “in on the joke” that we’re all a part of the process of commodity production & consumption. And yet, of course, as has become customary by now to point out, the joke is itself now a part of that same process, leaving us mostly with either a feeling of smugness or despair. Either way, you’re still dutifully treated to a reasonably funny episode of the show you intended to watch. It seems to me the better way forward, albeit a way that would not have been aired at all, would’ve been, following the opening credits, to cut to random bits of Married With Children instead, or perhaps an old Maoist cartoon.
I’ve been sick, so no analysis, just some questions, comments and one long-winded, half-baked noodling:
Read the rest of this entry »
In last week’s episode, Faye spoke very explicitly about her decision to forgo motherhood in order to have a career. That women were (and still are) often forced to make a painful and exclusive choice between career and family is surely not news.
But among the women on Mad Men, Faye, who at least got to make an affirmative choice, is relatively privileged. Read the rest of this entry »
(In which Joey turns out to be a total asshole, big surprise.)
I was recently invited to participate in a blog event on this season of Mad Men, hosted by the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)’s Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. A different writer is covering each episode as they come out, and I was assigned this week. My post is a kind of follow-up to my Popmatters article on Season 2, discussing how Season 3 and the current season so far have further complicated the question of Don’s identity.
You can read all the posts thus far here.
I admit I haven’t been enjoying this season as much as seasons past, but this episode made me hopeful that we’re back on track. Read the rest of this entry »
Poor Roger. Read the rest of this entry »
Adam’s shared items Brad’s shared items
Adam Kotsko
Anthony Paul Smith
Brad Johnson
Thomas J. J. Altizer
dominicfox
JD
Nate Kerr
danbarber
thomaslynch
Alex
Thomas J Bridges
clayton crockett
Andy
spinozanetwork
lissamccullough
Ryan Krahn
Christopher Rodkey
jms
Robert Minto
Dan
voyou