Mad Men Season 5 running thread

That's what makes Pete sympathetic at times. People are willing to overlook Roger and Don's equally horrendous behavior because they can drink anyone under the table, look good in a suit and say something witty. That's maddening to a guy like Pete who despite his advantages in life really is a hard-working,productive guy. He' a conniving creep, but not any more than Don and Roger.

To me, Pete Campbell is Richard Nixon. He simply can't accept the success he's experienced and that jealousy will ruin him.

I wouldn't be shocked if Pete Campbell doesn't ascend to the top of SCDP just as Nixon is elected in 1968, just to make that clearer.

 

Try to imagine Roger or Don dropping the "Because he thinks you're a homo" line on Lane.

It wouldn't seem out of place at all if either of them were in a bad mood, and it wouldn't make either of them look all that bad. But for some reason, when Pete says it, it reveals him to be a huge asshole.

I guess he's sympathetic because he wants to be cool like Roger and Sterling, but he just can't quite pull it off.

 

Pete is a prick who abuses everyone around him. Totally unsympathetic.

 

Pete's gonna die, I think, and soon.

They've been clubbing us with Chekov's .22 for a while, now.

 

Part of me wants to agree, and it seems to be the prevailing opinion. But that prevailing opinion already had Don and Roger committing suicide, and the ex Mr. Joan dying in Vietnam.

 

How does that make him different than, say, Roger?

 

How is Pete any bigger of a prick than Roger?

Roger pays off his employees to remain relevant, cheats on his wife, is a drunk and seems to have no intention of ever trying to reform. He takes a paycheck as a legacy. He's the man who takes the married client to the whorehouse, not Pete. He left his wife after decades of marriage and ignored his daughter her whole life. He reverts to racism and misogyny when challenged.

I guess silver hair and a quick wit will make anyone just ignore how big of a dickhead someone is.

In many ways, Roger Sterling is the villain of Mad Men. A funny villain who put his feet up and on the table and judged everyone else when America needed guidance in the 1960s.

 

Mr. Joan can still die in Vietnam.

And Roger has moments of humanity. Witness him and Joan when they were mugged. Or his apology to Don after he took a swipe at Betty. Or his poor self at the office Christmas party when Lucky Strike Junior made him dress up as Santa Claus.

When Pete's humiliated, I'm rooting for it -- and I think I am supposed to be. When Roger's humiliated, I feel for him. Probably because Roger's funny, and CAN laugh at himself, even if it's not his default setting.

They're all monsters of some stripe, save Ken Cosgrove. I mean, list the simple bad things Don Draper has done and he's not going to appear sympathetic. But I like him. I like Roger, at least part of the time.

I don't like Pete, and I don't think I am supposed to.

 

And it's that reaction that makes Pete sympathetic to me.

The only reason you aren't supposed to like him, as far as I can tell, is that he's not all that handsome and he never had the early-life experiences to teach him those brief moments of humanizing humility. Neither of which are his fault. (I know, whining pinko liberal not holding the person responsible, etc.).

Pete doesn't want to be Pete, he wants to be Roger and Don. The fact that he can't make that happen is what makes him sympathetic to me.

 

You feel bad for Pete Campbell because he's ugly despite his hot wife and because he grew up rich. OK.

 

But that's the point of a great drama.

There are no one-note bad guys and good guys.

We're supposed to dislike Pete, but also see why he is the way he is. He came from an unloving, judgmental family. He's handed everything in life and when he tries to strike out on his own, his own in-laws cut him off at the knees. He's enraptured by Don Draper and wants to be just like him. And in his mind he was being nice to Don in Season 1. And Don completely ignores him and humiliates him.

He's an emasculated man, and Pete's response has been to become a bigger dickhead year by year.

But if Pete had no sympathetic place in Mad Men, there's no way Vincent Kartheimer could get so much out of Pete. He'd be a cartoonish villain, and I don't think Pete is cartoonish at all. I think there are millions of Petes.

 

Roger grew up rich (raised by a nanny). Roger has a hot wife (remember? He left his loyal and loving wife?). Roger is also a dickhead (hey, Joanie, here's a bird. How about you live in a hotel room?)