Faye, You Were The One...

Oh Faye... Let me use the beginning of this article to say that we are all dearly sorry for what transpired between you and Don Draper. He knew not what he did. Don's useless arrogance overshadowed the importance of his relationship with a driven and career-oriented woman who genuinely cared for him despite his endless pursuit of the bottom of the bottle.

This is starting to feel like an obituary.

The 10 episodes of Mad Men you graced us with gave us hope that Don might finally situate himself with someone who could heal the wounds of Anna's death. Not to mention, you're the only woman in the entire Mad Men series given the respect and credibility of a professional. With your gentle, considerate demeanor complimented by the powerful and intimidating doctorate degree in psychology...

No, perhaps this is a love letter.

Faye, you're a classy chick. You didn't whore your way into Don's good graces either; you made him work for it. After he hit rock bottom the night of the Sonny Liston v. Mohammed Ali fight, he realized if he ever wanted to be worthy of someone like Dr. Faye he was gonna have to clean up his act. And they couldn't have picked a better actor to play her part.

Cara Buono, I might actually be falling for you.

A New York City girl born and raised, you graduated from Columbia in 1995 to go full time with your acting career which was already well underway.  Buono even wrote and directed the short film "Baggage", which I must say is up there with Wes Anderson's "Hotel Chevalier" as one f my favorite short films I've seen. But most of all, your character Dr. Faye was so natural because it seems she wasn't far off from the person you are in real life.

Faye was the one.

Faye's character makes men ache for the women they've hurt in the past, and I imagine women feel that same pain much more directly.  The story of Faye seems to comfort and massage all of our hearts before violently ripping them out of our chests.

We the fans still love you Faye.

We appreciate how you got our protagonist back on his feet. You don't cook and you're not good with kids, but Don would have much rather gone to dinner and pass his kids along to ex-wife anyway. You thought you two were going all the way, and we were strapped in for the same happily ever after. And then Don drove that bus off a cliff. SURPRISE!!! Don's sleeping with his secretary again.
But this time, Don's naive and vulnerable enough to think he's experienced the "struck-with-lightning" love he told Rachel Menken doesn't actually exist. Turns out he was right. Don proposes to Megan in Disney World (real original Don) and Faye's world gets shattered with a soulless break-up phone call from Don.

A good man doesn't do that. But Don isn't a good man. Even though it seems you might never love again, we're all cheering for you Faye. And it's good to know that Cara Buono is happily married and leading a continually successful acting career.

If you ever read this Cara Buono, know that I deeply respect your acting work in Mad Men and The Sopranos. AND your poise has struck me similarly to how you struck Don Draper, and I (along with many others, I'm sure) am deeply enchanted by you. Intelligent, intimidating and beautiful in all sorts of ways.

P.S. I'm glad you talk so fondly of your husband in interviews.  It makes us all very happy to know that there's not some miserable alcoholic putting you on the back burner of his agenda in real life.

Scumbucket Charisma

The Lovable Anti-Hero

Is it merely coincidence that three of Netflix' most popular shows are 'protaganized' by three of the world's most self-interested deviants?  I'm referring of course to the three above; Walter White from Breaking Bad, Frank Underwood of House of Cards, and the notorious Don Draper from Mad Men.

Oh and let's not forget:

Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy                                          Nancy Botwin of Weeds

Dexter of Dexter                                                      Tony Soprano of The Sopranos

Do we understand the current climate of our television programs? 

In one of my first blogs, I laid out the Hero's Journey according theologian Joseph Campbell, and how Don Draper fit into that archetypal model.  I stand behind the idea that Don Draper, like most protagonists, follow a similar archetypal journey throughout the plot of a given story.  However, somewhere along the way it seems it became good, to be bad.

We love rebellion. Most cult-groups promise some sort of stray from the norm.  The Grateful Dead became one of the most universally recognized cult-bands of all time because they offered a lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock n roll through their music. People with Jeeps can drive far off the beaten path, because they're adventurous and DIFFERENT.

Joseph Campbell wrote "The Hero with A Thousand Faces" in 1949.  He argued that almost every story ever written, including Moses' journey through the dessert and myths of ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, had a similar main character plot structure.  The profane human becomes a hero, goes on a journey with struggles and abysses, learns a valuable lesson, and returns home, transformed.  I believe that the anti-hero television movement aims to stray from this long-established norm.

Consider the 2001 Steven Soderbergh movie, "Ocean's Eleven." While I realize the movie was originally filmed in 1960 starring Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., Soderbergh brought back a powerful idea, of cheering for the bad-guy. Danny Ocean and his crew of 10 dudes, (10 + 1 = 11; i.e. Ocean's Eleven) plan to heist a Las Vegas casino for millions.  Oh and he made sure to incorporate three generations of hunks in George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon.  When you have bad-ass charismatic lead men like this, it almost authorizes them to do whatever they want and the audience will hop on board with the cause.

So thus, we have Walter White dissolving bodies in acid and Frank Underwood pushing his journalist-with-benefits in front of a train.  Don Draper is one of the most interesting case studies in turning south because, excluding his nuptial infidelity, he's not always a terrible guy.  For the first 2 seasons, Draper doesn't want to cheat on Betty, things are nice at home, and he values his relationship with Bobby and Sally.  But at the beginning of the end of his marriage with Betty, Don turns into the monster that we love to watch.

We can thank Matthew Weiner for this.  Weiner won nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his writing on both Mad Men and The Sopranos. Weiner is head-writer and creator of Mad Men. Weiner finished his work on The Sopranos in 2007, the same year Mad Men debuted on AMC. Weiner used the mobster-murderer, Tony Soprano, as the mold in which to cast his new character, Don Draper. Draper became the stage on which Weiner's evil writing could dance.  He can cheat, drink, and verbally abuse anyone he pleases upon his throne as creative director.  Weiner imagined Don Draper as America, but I see him more as the corrupt King of the states, if we were a monarchy.  

Jon Hamm once told Time magazine "People always tell me 'I want to be just like Don Draper.' I ask 'Why? You want to be a miserable drunk?'" We don't really understand why we obsess over these horrible people, other than the fact that they're entertaining and original.  Not many of us have the capacity to be so vicious and remain so calm on the exterior. We can only remain fascinated at the vile actions of these fictional characters, because they're so much better than we are at keeping it cool.