[VIDEO] Sesame Street: Mad Men
Posted: November 10, 2014 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: AMC, Don Draper, Jessica Paré, Mad Men, Roger Sterling, Sesame Street 1 CommentAnd now eMC, the emotional movie channel, presents Mad Men. Mr. Draper is looking for solid ideas on the Happy Honey Bear account, ideas that are going to make him happy about honey.
[REWIND] Julia Yost on Mad Men’s Megan
Posted: May 4, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Don Draper, Jessica Paré, Joan Holloway, List of Mad Men characters, Mad Men, Megan, Roger, Roger Sterling 4 Comments
One of the more involved and insightful deep-dish Mad Men pieces I’ve seen this season, from an unlikely source, it’s a pleasure to read TV show analysis this dedicated. If you’re a Don Draper fan like me, read the whole thing.
In advance of this Sunday night’s Mad Men, episode 4, here’s a look back at episode 3 by Julia Yost.
For First Things, Julia Yost writes:
Are Don and Megan Draper finally over? In the major arc before the first commercial break, Don speaks long-distance to Megan’s agent and learns that Megan has been exhibiting desperate (stalker-like) behavior toward industry types in L.A. Don flies out unannounced in the middle of the week. Megan’s libidinal delight upon his arrival turns to melancholy as she reflects on her rejections (“It’s sunny here for everyone but me”) and then to outrage when she learns the reason for Don’s visit (“You came out here to, what, pull me out of a bathtub where I slit my wrists?”) and then to suspicion and accusation (“You’re never [in the office] when I call. … Who’s your new girl, Don?”—by which she means mistress, not secretary). Don confesses, not to having an affair, but to having been on leave from SC&P since Thanksgiving (it is now early spring). Megan is furious over the secrecy, and furious that all this time he could have been with her in L.A. but chose not to. She throws him out, with “This is the way it ends.”
I indulge in bald plot-summary here because I have waited so long in patience for these two to split up. As Megan ca. 1968-69, Jessica Paré is a tedious screen presence in hideous clothes. Their crackup has always seemed a foregone conclusion, given how impulsively Don proposed (at Disneyland!) in Season Four and how incapable he is of husband-like qualities (sustained honesty, loyalty, sobriety). The writers have been flirting with it since the midpoint of Season Five. Get on with it! A long-distance phone call later in the episode may or may not herald a rapprochement; let us hope not. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Late Night Mad Men Rewind: Megan (Jessica Paré) Sings ‘Zou Bisou Bisou’
Posted: January 15, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Don Draper, January Jones, Jessica Paré, Jon Hamm, Mad Men, Manhattan, YouTube, Zou Bisou Bisou 2 CommentsMegan Draper (Jessica Paré) sings Zou Bisou Bisou during Don’s (Jon Hamm) ‘surprise’ birthday party and somehow thought he’d be fine with it. Guess again, babe.
I remember this episode. One of the highlights of season 4 (before Draper went into alcohol-fueled decline in season 5) when Don’s new Manhattan apartment, new Ad Agency, and hot new French-Canadian replacement wife (who sings, too, ooh la la!) looked like the ingredients for professional success and domestic bliss. And Zou Bisou Bisou made a splash, too. The only person in who didn’t like the performance is Don Draper, but everyone else at the party thought it was sexy as hell.
Though I admire January Jones‘ acting, the Betty character was overexposed. When Draper remarried, I welcomed the introduction of the Megan character as wife #2. Besides being more of a 1960s modern girl, let’s face it, actress Jessica Paré is sexy. Even though this marriage is not destined to succeed, either.
Draper, well, he’s a complicated guy.
For collectors, Amazon has Mad Men: Seasons 1-4
(and if you do get it, order it via this link, or above, it’s like a micro-tip jar that helps support this site)
I have all four. I’ve been collecting them along the way, though I haven’t added season 5 yet. (the Draper-in-decline ‘bummer’ season) Season Six starts this spring. I can’t wait.
Mad Men – Zou Bisou Bisou (720p) – YouTube
‘Mad Men’ Finale: Both Sides Now
Posted: June 23, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Don Draper, Jessica Paré, Kiernan Shipka, Mad Men, Megan, PEGGY OLSON, PETE CAMPBELL, Sally Leave a commentSPOILER ALERT: Stop reading if you haven’t seen the finale of “Mad Men.”
I can’t remember a “Mad Men” finale that laid quite so much track for the storylines of the subsequent season. For the show’s penultimate season, that’s appropriate as the saga of Don Draper heads into its final 13 installments.
I have to hand to to Matthew Weiner and Co. I didn’t see Don Draper’s confessional moves coming, even though of course in hindsight there were plenty of hints. Indeed one of the most powerful moments of season six was the fearless Sally Draper looking her father in the eye and telling him “I don’t know anything about you” in the wake of the experience with creepy “Aunt Ida.”
Don is obviously on a mission to change that in the season six finale, “In Care Of,” written by Carly Wray (a writers assistant this season who’s having her “42nd Street” moment with the opportunity to co-write the finale ) and Weiner and also helmed by Weiner.
