I'm not going to talk. I don't want you to cut yourself.

Mad Men - "Maidenform" (Matthew Weiner)

Sometimes I watch Mad Men and wonder what the hell the characters are doing and why.

This should have been a brilliant episode but it seemed to miss the mark for me too many times.

Four examples:

1. I simply don't believe that an unaccompanied woman would be allowed in a strip club in the early sixties.
2. Would Betty really wander around serving breakfast to her children in a bikini? (No matter how hot a month of May it was.)
3. This may be a trivial example but while it was shocking that a person could dump his dog outside to fend for itself while he goes off to drink (or commit suicide or not to drink, I dunno) it lost its sadness when the dog turned away and, after spotting his off-screen handler, trotted off tail wagging.
4. The use of a modern song at the beginning was jarring and wrong. After 18 episodes of perfectly chosen music this was extra-specially wrong even if the lyrics were appropriate.

The irony of excluding the people who actually wear Playtex (and probably buy most of it) was sad. I thought Peggy was excessively passive throughout which made her transformation seem even sillier. Just who is she going to listen to next?

Poor Pete. He has absolutely no idea what an arse he is. He tries so hard to chat amiably with Peggy but is rebuffed. He makes friends with a girl dog who's a boy dog. He then shags a model (who failed to get the part) in the living room of her apartment with her mother next door. His self awareness is pitiful. He actually thinks he isn't a loser.

Fucking Don - take that in all its meanings - he is such a horrible character at the moment. I'm glad he took a moment to think at the end. He needs to get a grip and soon. He has all he needs at home if he would just look.

I'm itching for Betty to tell Don where to shove his patronising hypocritical attitude. I suspect I have a long wait.

I guess we have seen the last of Bobbie unless her next appearance is to take some sort of well deserved revenge on Don. I don't like the character at all but Melinda McGraw plays her brilliantly.

The Jackie/Marilyn/Madonna/whore thing was interesting and I have no doubt the assvertising industry would love to have two such strong models to divide modern women into such day and night categories. I see Peggy as a Joanne Woodward.

I'm not the brightest of people so I didn't get that Don was a bit of a Jackie/Marilyn/Madonna/whore himself and missed the symbolism of the mirror at the end but I really don't understand how people could query his discomfort at being celebrated as a hero on Memorial Day.