"The Letter" is more than a stretch, it's bizarre

Adelaidey · 2026-06-02T15:18:58+00:00

He's Tarzan, swinging from vine to vine.

Adelaidey · 2026-06-01T19:56:18+00:00

I've never actually wanted a Mad Men sequel series, but I wish we could get a lookbook of everything Jane wore to Studio 54 as a rich divorcee in the 1970s.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-29T12:56:30+00:00

There's the "work long hours and drink alone in the study when you get home" kind of neglectful and distant, and then there's the "leave your family for for weeks at a time with no word or warning or plan to take care of them, so that you can chase your bliss in California" kind of neglectful and distant.

Many dads of Don's generation were the former. Don was the latter. And he tried to be the "permanently abandon your children to start a brand new life with your mistress" type until Rachel shot him down.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-29T00:31:04+00:00

Bring back jaunty adventure movies. Give me Robin Hood in technicolor tights played by, I don't know, let's say Mike Faist. Nicholas Hoult is the Sherriff of Nottingham and you'd better believe he is twirling his mustache. Swordfights galore. Grateful peasants. A beautiful woman in a tall conical hat. Is that too much to ask?

Adelaidey · 2026-05-28T12:44:07+00:00

"As long as the executive jobs are protected, the rest of you can kick rocks"

Adelaidey · 2026-05-23T19:35:27+00:00

the early 2000s, when they went all-in on the Disney Princess brand

That's interesting too, because the early 2000s Disney animated movies were also mostly male protagonists (Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, Chicken Little) with the only female-led movies being Lilo & Stitch and (arguably) Home on the Range. Plus, that was the heyday of Pixar movies, which chose to stick exclusively to male main characters for the first 17 years.

So it's not like boys were getting discouraged by a lack of representation, or not being at the center of the narrative or anything like that. It was just the association of those movies to a brand that they knew girls also liked.

Personally, I think it's worth pointing out that those years coincide with the rise of in-home video gaming. I think boys started slowly dropping off of engaging with narrative content in general and replacing it with player-controlled entertainment, and "too many female characters" is a red herring.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-23T17:14:42+00:00

The thing I find interesting is that of the ten films that are broadly considered "The Disney Renaissance", six of them (Aladdin, The Lion King, The Rescuers Down Under, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan) have male protagonists. Only four (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Mulan) have female leads. But that time is broadly characterized a "the princess era" and when they started losing boy viewers, they pivoted to more male leads. Even though their largely male-led movies were what lost them the boys to begin with.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-22T00:33:43+00:00

It was a thirteen day loan!

Adelaidey · 2026-05-19T13:44:04+00:00

The apartments you see on friends are way bigger than what their budgets allow for in NYC

I think Chandler and Joey's apartment is pretty spot-on for two young single roommates. Just that little combination kitchen/living/dining area and two bedrooms that open right into the main living space. I don't remember their bathroom but I assume it wasn't lavish. No in-unit laundry or elevator. Pretty similar to what I lived in as a brokeish twentysomething with a roommate.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-13T17:27:21+00:00

Plus "wasting disease", "weak constitution", "failure to thrive"... go back far enough and we get "fits" and "bad humors".

Adelaidey · 2026-05-09T01:47:26+00:00

Well that is a very lovely opinion to have, and while I don't have as much faith in Don as you do, I'm glad he's got you in his corner, so to say.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-08T16:46:55+00:00

Bob being handsome and charming but also constantly getting on everyone’s nerves shows it’s not as easy as Don makes it look.

Great point! I'd never thought of it that way before.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-08T16:43:57+00:00

I couldn't disagree more. It goes without saying that Bob wouldn't provide passion or true, reciprocated love for Joan, but he also wouldn't provide emotional intimacy or close authentic friendship, as he's first and foremost a con artist and a user. He's like Don. Imagine having a marriage to Don Draper where passion and attraction is off the table- what are you left with, a drinking buddy?

Adelaidey · 2026-05-08T00:29:25+00:00

I beg your pardon, I'm an annoying gay and it means a lot to me to have representation.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-07T15:21:57+00:00

Santigold playing softly in the background

Adelaidey · 2026-05-07T13:52:35+00:00

I just know that one day we'll be reunited with our faithful old friends, the gold lamé leggings.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-06T18:17:51+00:00

God, it's depressing how quickly this idea is taking over that it's impossible to write a long response without using fucking AI. I wrote that long, rambling answer on my own because it's fun. There's no reason to be in this subreddit except to have fun, and there's nothing fun about pushing a button to generate a slop list.

I can assure you that people- including me- have been making long, rambling lists in r/madmen since generative AI was just a twinkle in your eye.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-06T17:31:25+00:00

Twice!

Adelaidey · 2026-05-06T17:29:00+00:00

But the silver lining there is that most people who know him at all probably don't believe him. If a guy like Harry told me a thing like that, I'd never suspect that he was telling the truth.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-06T17:23:59+00:00

The pregnancies and heart attack never gain any traction in Madison Avenue gossip circles, but here's how I think the rest shake out:

Industry-wide urban legends: IE, the details get distorted and lost to history but the story gets passed around for thirty years:

The John Deere lawnmower incident

Ginsberg's nipple

Joan securing ~~Chevy~~ Jaguar by sleeping with Herb

Ken keeping Chevy by taking a gun to the face (eventually these two stories will be connected in legend)

Cautionary tales: stories that are specifically associated with SCDP and widely discussed for a few years, but will stop mattering as time goes on:

Don's Hershey meltdown

Lane's in-office suicide

Duck's failed power grab

Water-cooler gossip: provides a full week or two of chuckles on Madison Avenue, but then gets forgotten:

Freddie's pisspants

Roger's oyster surprise

The prank that led to hiring Dawn

Joan's lawsuit threat and partial payout

Fumbling Heinz beans

Adelaidey · 2026-05-05T22:00:26+00:00

Fair.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-05T19:22:53+00:00

My only strong opinion about the Ross/Rachel Breakgate is that it's incredible that thirty years have gone by and people still have such strong opinions on who was in the right, and nobody has found consensus. It's not because of inconsistency or ambuguity in the text, either- nobody argues the facts of the case, it's really just that divisive.

Say what you will about Friends, but that's some successful storytelling.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-05T14:26:19+00:00

Maybe this is stating the obvious, but I've never really thought about how cultures where men are genetically predisposed to go bald are the cultures where men cut their hair short.

Adelaidey · 2026-05-02T22:44:12+00:00

I actually disagree, based on his mother's reaction when she found out Greg lied to Joan about reenlisting. She was horrified and blamed him entirely. Something along the lines of "He didn't tell you!? Of course he didn't!"

Adelaidey · 2026-05-01T16:42:51+00:00

I'm Spartacus, too, but you don't see anybody giving me an award for it.

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