I swear, it’s the same people who thought Don was supposed to be the hero of the show or something. Don Draper was a complex character, but he’s at heart a pretty shitty person and is constantly desperately unhappy. You’re not supposed to want to be like Don, people.
Are there any "good" people on Mad Men? Kind of not the point. Joan is probably one of the most sympathetic characters and Joan has her drawbacks, too.
Oh for sure, it’s not a “good guys” kinda show. Much more a “people are messy and complex” deal. But like, there are still totally people (Joan, Ken, Trudy, Sally, etc.) who are waaaaay less of an asshole than Don.
And I, personally, thought the show did a really good job of being like “this guy is a piece of shit and because of the choices he keeps making he’ll probably never actually be happy and he ruins all the good things in his life and doesn’t care who he hurts, etc. etc.” But I guess some people still watched it and went “Yep, that dude is clearly aspirational.”
I find Don sympathetic even though he is a piece of shit and this is probably why people are confused by that. I mean, we see him experiencing such deep existential misery, and we know why he steals another man's identity, and even the war widow of the man with the stolen identity comes to feel a kind of maternal protectiveness of him. Don hates himself way, way, way more than we do, which is why he is so self-destructive.
It is funny that people definitely read Don Draper as a "chad" who is aspirational though, given how much even he can't stand the very idea of himself.
That said when I rewatch Mad Men and think about it the character I find myself constantly returning to and re-evaluating and wrestling with is not Don, but Betty. I mean wow. What a character, lol. Is she a narcissist or a victim? I'll never figure that one out, I think. One of the things that makes the show so great.
Yeah, it’s really interesting how much we learn of the why the way Don is the way he is. Like, on a certain level it’s understandable that he turned out the way he did.
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u/BoopleBun 13d ago
I swear, it’s the same people who thought Don was supposed to be the hero of the show or something. Don Draper was a complex character, but he’s at heart a pretty shitty person and is constantly desperately unhappy. You’re not supposed to want to be like Don, people.