Mad Men: Love Among The Ruins

Remember in the 1st or 2nd season when Peggy was seeing the OB/GYN he was smoking while examing her and putting his cigarette in the ashtray while he was under her gown. I'm surprised he wasn't taking a drag while he was taking a look down under.

Sure there was no information available to people back then about the affects of drinking and smoking while pregnant but that doesn't mean babies weren't born with defects even back in the 50's and 60's, they just haden't linked the two at the time. Since the viewers know the links if Betty and Don's baby is born with health issues the doctors and Betty and Don might be oblivious as to why thier baby is unhealthy but the "Mad Men" viewer of 2009 will know and go "its the ciggerates and liquer stupid".

Does anyone know the name of the song playing in the background when Peggy was in the bar talking to that new guy? It's a real oldie...can't remember it!

@Midnight - Wouldn't it be an interesting twist/statement if nothing becomes of all that smoking and drinking during her pregnancy? That sort of thing happened more often than we can imagine. It *could* lead to birth defects, problems with pregnancy, but I'm guessing it often didn't.

I think they made a point to show Betty smoking and drinking so much when she's weeks away from giving birth. This being a drama I would perhaps believe that there will be complications with the birth, if nothing else it will be premature.

P.S. Maybe it's so blatant it isn't worth mentioning, but it's incredible to see Betty drinking and smoking through "her injury." ;)

Have to agree -- this episode was stellar. A++.

I couldn't help but think the opening last week would have turned new viewers away. This week, though, holy smokes.

Don's interaction with William -- after telling Peggy her job was to "solve problems" -- was incredible.

This show is so unbelievably good!

Great episode.

Peggy's father coming to stay with them gives me serious, serious pause. He is obviously deep into the throws of advanced dementia and I keep recalling his sexual advances towards Betty in an earlier episode. And then I think about their daughter...

I'm loving the growing civil unrest between the denizens of Sterling Cooper and their British overlords. And Peggy's non-answer to the '... how you girls do all that typing.' in the bar scene was one of the best bits of 'non-writing' I've seen in a long while. Don being the force of nature to his brother-in-law's tumbleweed. It's such a dense, delicious show.

The show has such a rich cast of characters. Don, Peggy, Pete, Joan, Roger, Salvatore, Bert Cooper (Brilliant for such a small role), I could watch episodes centered around any of them (Okay, Betty is a well drawn character too, but her passive/sublimated anger, particularly when it's aimed at their sun, grates on my nerves badly).

I have a friend, who's never watched the show, who says she doesn't want to give it a try because it's, 'Just a show about the bad old days of the fifties and sixties and some advertising agency.' I'm still working to convince her that it's really a twelve course meal and she's only seeing the dinner salad that it starts with. :-)

It is no mere accident that the genius that is Matt Weiner used the title of Browning's poem. I recommend giving it a read, as one analysis on it says "Love Among the Ruins is based on a contrast between past and present. It speaks of a great city that once stood where sheep and merely ruins now stand. The speaker prefers the carpet of grass that lies where roads once were where armies marched to their fate." The literal ruins of Penn Station to come (compared to a temple in its day), the grass, the once formidable father in the ruins of dementia...wow

This show is so layered and complex. I think a new viewer though may not see everything going on...Mad Men requires investment.

Oh yes, Don was definitely thinking of the teacher. I remember Patio cola. All my mother's friends drank it. While they smoked and played cards. And the kids ran around with drycleaning bags over our heads.
November 23rd 1963. I didn't think of that. That's a doomed marriage.