A lot of women do creative work on this show, and I would suggest one reason you might not like it (as some other feminists I know do not) is that it correctly brings back the time in which women were on the cusp of liberation… but still treated like horse-dung, particularly if they had sex outside of marriage. I even wrote a post titled “Thank a second-wave (old) feminist IF…” largely inspired by the show. Women don’t like to think about how it used to be. But I think that’s the show’s lasting feminist gift to us.

As for how unlikable the characters are, I think that is largely subversive… advertising is, after all, fakery. So the people who work in it, the show suggests, live that way. They lie to us, as they lie to themselves.

There’s something about the show that isn’t quite right, even though they’ve obviously gone to a lot of trouble to mimic the details.

I’ve watched some of the episodes, and I’m always conscious that what I’m watching *isn’t* taking place in 1960.

And the funny thing is, I’m not sure why.

Part of it is I think is the actors. They just look too *modern*, in some strange way.

The other part of is, I don’t think that people in 1960 would’ve have been as open about, well, everything as they are now.

I knew WASPs from that era, and I just can’t see them being as open with their prejudices/feelings as they seem to be in the show.

Not that they didn’t have them, but they would have been much more … formal about expressing them.

I might be wrong, but I don’t think the show is going to have much of an audience outside cable.

Celebrate your success and acclaim. Quit worrying about what the great unwashed masses here in the hinterlands think of your amazing Tee-Vee show. It’s quite an achievement for basic cable.

My plans to catch up with your show have sadly changed. I, too, will watch something else now.

Hope that’s okay with you.

Matthew Weiner

One of the best, most subtle episodes of this for me was the one in which Draper turned down the offer of a great new job just make sure his wife stayed at home.

Sexist? Certainly. It’s an historically accurate show, and that was the way the world was. (And you know what, it still is. It’s just hidden these days.)

Nope, Kat, you’re wrong. It’s the best TV I’ve seen … and I have to say, it’s no surprise that it’s on cable, not networks. Networks like their shows very two-dimensional, but I find this world and its characters fascinating.