Are you a fan of Mad Men? Are you a fan of X-Men? Have you been hoping that Matt Weiner and Stan Lee would somehow meet up at an exclusive Hollywood party and eventually create a series that combines your two favorite television franchises?
If so, please get out of your house more.
And that hasn't exactly happened but the funny folks at Madatoms have done that for you with their new line of Mad Men/X-Men mash-ups. The shows are actually eerily similar when you think about it. Both of them feature ruthless characters who will stop at nothing for ultimate power. Both deal with the changing intolerance of their respective ages. The only thing missing are the tight fitting spandex outfits, but hey, a man can dream, right?
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see Betty Draper play Beer Pong, you got to see it last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Then January Jones helped Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu demonstrate the best way to tackle someone.
That was some Mad Men finale, wasn't it? If you haven't seen it yet, please stop reading now, because there was just too much going on for me not to just launch into some discussion.
OK, I'll wait until after the jump to really get into things. But, suffice to say, the end of season three left some characters going down a pretty well-determined path, but others have entered a sort of limbo state, where we don't quite know what their roles will be in season four.
(S03E13) It's a cold Friday, December 13, 1963. The President's been killed and the world as Don Draper knows it has pretty much fallen apart. For most of the season, the ground has been shifting under Don's feet and he's be holding on, trying to right himself and his life. He's tried with Betty. He's tried for Sally and Bobby and Gene -- at least as much as Don is able to try.
With Conrad Hilton he's never been on a level playing field, and from the moment he was forced to sign the contract, Sterling Cooper has not been his domain as it had been. With this episode, this season finale, all was changed and, perhaps, all has been righted. More after the jump.
The assassination of JFK on Sunday's episode of Mad Men may have been the catalyst for Betty Draper's "awakening," but it's been a long time coming.
Here comes my rant: I, for one, am sick and tired of seeing the women in this show get walked all over! I know it's the way things were back then, but the times they are a changin', so I'm hoping we'll get to see more women stand up and take charge of their lives.
I was cheering when Betty stood up to her lying, cheating, skank of a husband Don and told him she didn't love him anymore. Bonus points for driving off to meet your lover, Betty. Hopefully, he won't cheat on you.
Now if Joan would leave her loser fiance who raped her at the office and then went about his business like nothing happened -- that'd be the icing on this women's movement cake. I'd say that she and Roger Sterling belong together, but she's too good for him.
I continue to be amazed by Mad Men. I don't mean the overall quality of the writing, the acting, the direction, the production. It's easy to be amazed by all that. I'm talking about where Matthew Weiner and his writing staff are taking us.
I think we can all agree that, beyond the bigger picture of how the 1960s changed America, the big story on the show has been "Who is Don Draper?" It's the big secret that he's been keeping since episode one and it has really been the driving force of the show. But last night Weiner and Co. blew the show wide open by having Betty confront Don about the box in the drawer. And when she did, Don actually told the truth! And this wasn't even the season finale!
(S03E11) Autumn in New York, why does it feel so inviting... That's a great song, and I thought of it while watching the opening of this episode, with the Draper kids all excited about Halloween. And there was also that chill in the air between Don and Betty. Actually, the icy glare was all Betts. She was off to see her brother about selling their father's home, but what was really on Betty's mind was the contents of Don's desk drawer. More on that and gypsy and the hobo, after the jump. By the way, this was a great Mad Men episode.
So ... Betty Draper is starting to get an inkling of Don's dark and secret past on Mad Men. In Sunday's episode, she found the box with all his secret things. Really, you'd think he would keep it in a safety deposit box or something. You can't just leave that stuff lying around the house, even in a locked desk drawer. Someone's bound to find it, just as Betty did.
My question is what will Betty do with this important information? She' s already been stung by Don's affairs, and now she's got this to contend with.
(S03E10) "We don't need to go every week." - Betty, about church
I once had a boss, a rather bad guy, who used to brag that he was a good person because he went to church every Sunday. I used to say to myself, "yeah, because you have to go to church every Sunday." I thought of that after Betty said that above quote to Sally. I'm not very religious, but if people have to go to church every week because of the bad things they do, then Betty and Don are two people who should be going.
For all of their problems and dalliances, Mad Men's Don and Betty Draper are one sexy couple. Sunday's episode, "Souvenir," was another stellar offering, and one of my favorite scenes was when Don and Betty pretended to be strangers in Rome, then went back to their room and made sweet love.
It made me swoon, not just because they're two really handsome people (her beehive-type hairdo was something else), but also because I felt like I was part of the whole deception involving the Italian guys at the cafe. Very fun.
And this, after Betty accepted a kiss from Henry Francis after the courtroom scene. She's such a cold fish with these things, and I have to wonder if she's just doing it to get back at Don for his affairs. She doesn't seem to enjoy the attention of other men. She doesn't seem to enjoy much of anything. Bob likened it to Revolutionary Road, and I quite agree. And it's no wonder Sally has repressed anger issues. She comes by it honestly.
(S03E08) "You don't kiss boys, boys kiss you." - Betty, to Sally
I think my favorite episodes of Mad Men are the ones that have a nice balance of Draper household drama and Sterling Cooper advertising drama. It seemed that this episode was going to tilt a lot - too much - towards the former, but about 20 minutes in, both worlds came together in unexpected ways -- Betty going on the business trip to Rome with Don and Pete running into ... well, someone at the department store. We'll talk about that more after the jump.
In last Sunday's episode of Mad Men, Betty Draper tried to use the knowledge that someone in the Governor's office liked her to save a neighborhood park. I'm sure he wanted more than just that, but it hasn't gone any further (yet). The other day, January Jones (who plays Betty) went to Capitol Hill to get involved in politics for real, advocating for sharks.
In this picture, Jones meets with Senator John McCain. In the caption to the pic, McCain says that he's a huge fan of Mad Men. I think that's one thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on. Someone in the comments says it's Grandpa Gene's ghost. Ha!
(S03E07) "Maybe I was late because I was with my family reading the Bible." - Don, to Conrad Hilton
I've never understood why some people say they can't get into Mad Men (or they watch the show and think the same thing) because "nothing ever happens." I think a lot of stuff happens in every episode, but a lot of it is done with silences and not something more intense. But even the people who think that the show is too "slow" will have to admit that like last week's episode, this episode had a ton of character development, mystery, and plot twists.
(S03E06) What do disappointment, opportunities and snakes have in common? They're all themes in this episode of Mad Men. The British, in the form of Powell, Ford and Mackendrick came to Sterling Cooper for a visit, but what that visit meant was anybody's guess. The visit wrecking holiday plans for the staff -- no Independence Day for you, colonists -- was obvious irony and true nonetheless. And the Guy walking into the ad agency, well, it would be a hollow joke after this tragedy. More after the jump.
Are you a fan of Mad Men? Are you a fan of X-Men? Have you been hoping that Matt Weiner and Stan Lee would somehow meet up at an exclusive Hollywood party and eventually create a series that combines your two favorite television franchises? 
The assassination of JFK on 
So ... Betty Draper is starting to get an inkling of Don's dark and secret past on 
For all of their problems and dalliances, 
In 
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