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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

About that TV show

OK, so let me see if I’ve got this straight.  Pete rapes the au pair down the hall, and we’re led to believe that his marriage is going to get stronger as a result.  (Though not before he’s had that humiliating exchange with his neighbor, who tells him to stop bullshitting about the au pair and—wink wink—to take that extracurricular business outside the building.  Vile on every level.) Meanwhile, our cad Don does the right marital thing for once: he takes Betty to Rome where they have a short—but sweet!—little honeymoon, with Don turned on by the fact that Italian men fall for Betty while Betty’s kinda turned on by the fact that Conrad Hilton fell for Don.  Why, Don even has Connie send Betty a souvenir.  How thoughtful!  And ... their marriage takes a body blow as a result.  It just doesn’t seem fair, somehow.

Not that one can blame Betty.  She’s not putting her anthropology major—or her fluent Italian—to much use in the wilds of Ossining.  And can I just point out that in 1961-63, living in Ossining was like living in Ultima Thule?  I mean, people are talking about Don and Betty living in “the suburbs.” Actually, Scarsdale and Dobbs Ferry were suburbs back then.  Ossining (35 miles from midtown Manhattan) is a hyper-exurb, a bit further away from the action than those wealthy Connecticut bedroom communities, Greenwich and Cos Cob.

And under the heading of I Are A Complete Numbskull, I actually said to Janet, as Pete handed the young woman the replacement dress, “it’s kind of nice to see Pete do something altruistic for a change.”

Posted by Michael on 10/06 at 02:49 PM
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