Photo of the day

March 25, 2012 6 Comments

Mad Men comes back tonight!

Gallery Photography for Mad Men Season 4

Is it wrong for me to admit I have a crush on Don Draper?

Filed under Culture

About Steve Greene
Professor of Political Science at NC State http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/shgreene

6 Responses to Photo of the day

Mark says:

March 25, 2012 at 12:36 pm

I’m just as excited as you, but Don Draper is a horrible person. I find myself simultaneously rooting for and hating him. I’m more of a fan of Pete. He’s really come into his own over the past two seasons. Stopped being a weasel and become more confident with his identity.

Reply
itchy says:

March 25, 2012 at 9:37 pm

No, no, no. Pete is worse than Draper. Peggy, despite her flaws, is the only one worth rooting for.

Reply
- Mark says:
  
  March 26, 2012 at 11:39 am
  
  I agree that Peggy is the only character worth rooting for, but how is Pete worse than Don? Don is a terrible human being. Pete at least sees where the country is going and isn’t afraid to embrace it (albeit from his rich white man perch). He also seems to genuinely care about his wife and was the person keeping SCDP afloat with Don going off the rails and Roger phoning it in.
  
  Reply
  - itchy says:
    
    March 26, 2012 at 11:56 am
    
    The difficult (and rewarding) thing about the show is that Weiner keeps adding layers to the characters. The minute you’re beginning to have sympathy for Don, he does something horrible. And, yes, while I had a complete revulsion toward Pete, he’s shown some human qualities — and he gets dumped on. Not enough yet to make me trust at all that he wouldn’t wield his power just as selfishly as Don does if he had it.
    
    Even Peggy and Betty, who were the most sympathetic characters, have had their mean-spirited moments.
John F. says:

March 25, 2012 at 10:50 pm

Yes.

Reply
Steve Greene says:

March 26, 2012 at 1:40 pm

I root for them all. And I don’t think Don is a horrible person. My favorite thing is dramatic entertainment be it novels or great TV is the moral ambiguity that comes with good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things and trying to figure out which is which, if that is even a meaningful question. As Itchy suggests, I think what makes Mad Men great is the many layers to all these characters.

Reply