Betty Draper shoots birds (from “Shoot” — Season One, Episode 9)
On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:16 PM, David Lehman wrote:
Dear January Jones,
How did you like last night's doings?
Here are my observations:
(1) "Poor Peggy." Some things don't change.
(2) So Don is ghosting, and his replacement at the firm is a dullard.
(3) Pete is in a surprisingly good humor. Maybe the 70s, that awful decade, will be good for the likes of him.
(4) Poor Megan. Some things do change.
(5) Do you think we will see more of the passenger who sat next to Don on the flight back to New York?
(6) I agree entirely with the lovely grown-up daughter who forgives her daddy at brunch in the Plaza (but hold, please, the eggs benedict.)
(7) With how many bodies does Roger share his (or whose) bed?
(8) Is Don still living in the NYC flat he owned with Megan -- only it has fallen into disrepair to the extent that he can't close the terrace doors?
(9) Don't throw your lighted cigarettes on the terrace, Don. Only you can stop forest fires.
(10) In transition: Ted; Joan. Absent: Betty, Sally, Bert Cooper. What is Ginsberg thinking?
I love your gin, which I am sipping this very evening.
Love,
David
On Friday, Apr 18, 2014 at 8:08 PM Amy Gerstler wrote:
Hi David,
Due to several categories of glitches, I was not able to watch the mad men episode till last night, hence my delay in responding to your vital 10 part query. And now we viewers have the second episode almost upon us.
1. Poor Peggy indeed. And poor Joan. When will the Mad Men bra burning/Gloria Steinem/1st wave feminist episode be aired?
2. Don's replacement is worse than a dullard, and hopefully will do something really outrageous to get himself run out of the company on a rail so Don can return, UNLESS the move is going to be to have Don start his own renegade agency, maybe in California, rescuing Peggy and Joan and a few other worthies in the process. Likely?
3. Pete is ever vile and deliciously snarky. And he looks horrid in golf shirts! Which is perfect! (or was it a tennis shirt?) How soon will Don boff the blonde real estate babe Peter had his arm around?
4. Poor Megan in so many ways! Which will destroy her first? Her marriage to Don or her having willingly walked into the maw of deepest darkest Hollywood?
5. I would like to see more of the woman on plane. What are the chances?
6. I'm a little fretful about what moves Roger's daughter is going to pull now that she has "forgiven" him. I smell membership in a cult or weird religion on the horizon as the reason she's so "forgiving" now. Maybe born again?
7. Those orgies are going to sap Roger's strength. But I like his spirit of inquiry about everything.
8. I share your confusion about where Don is living now...since he's still being paid maybe he kept that swank flat? Yet with Megan's rent in Laurel Canyon or Hollywood Hills, or wherever she moved, and her not seeming to be employed in movies and TV quite yet, perhaps he's had to take a smaller cheaper place where the doors stick? What are those doors a metaphor for?
9. Yes, forest fires and coyotes...this is what passes for a portrait of California.
10. I wish you and Stacey were bi-coastal as Mad Men now seems to be!
Going to a Dodger game tonight. They are playing the Diamondbacks. Hope they squash them.
much love,
a.
Fascinating exchange! I hope you will continue as the season progresses.
Posted by: Donna Marlington | April 20, 2014 at 05:07 PM
I LOVE this way of "talking" about the show. Two smart funny poets exchanging e-mails! Please keep doing this.
Posted by: Marissa | April 20, 2014 at 08:55 PM