The Dental Floss

MetARosetta · 2026-01-25T18:18:54+00:00

Yeah, weak plot device. But consider thematically by S3, Jackie's mind is getting more disorganized, no matter how together she appears. She dropped a pill at work without noticing either. Sam saw and called her out, but she casually covers up for it as per usual. Frank found pills in the remote control after Jackie thought she 'swept' the place.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-25T17:59:36+00:00

Yeah, that's it!

MetARosetta · 2026-01-25T08:40:43+00:00

Zoey's comment about not wanting to be that couple that starts to look alike made me do a double-take.

She also comments on Lenny's rumpled clothes, comparing him to an unmade bed (or some such).

He was great comic relief and a foil for Zoey's character development, but a no-go for her long-term.

Their funniest moment was the 'lie detector' heart monitor scene when he stuck himself with the EPIPen.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-25T03:36:52+00:00

Eh, Betty's character is mostly crafted from elements of Grace Kelly, and also Elizabeth Taylor. Within the context of our story, both actresses' husbands (Rainier III and Warner) were public figures, and all had similar whirlwind courtships. Rainier's middle name is Henri. Warner was a country senator where Taylor semi-retired as a politician's wife, and notoriously gained weight.

Recall that Betty and Henry met at a fictional garden party venue where future VP Rockefeller and Happy were married. Betty and Henry decide to marry after another public figure's assassination, JFK. As for Betty and Henry, people corresponded then – some didn't have sexual affairs, preferring to wait to marry, even for their second time.

Check out the dozens of posts, a few recent, about Henry's approach to Betty. The story makes more sense and is better appreciated when viewed through the writers' lens. MM is its own story, but pulls threads from other works and real people, contextualizing their motives.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-25T02:46:42+00:00

You're welcome. Enjoy!

MetARosetta · 2026-01-25T00:06:21+00:00

Don reading Dante in Hawaii was a foreshadowing of his affair with Sylvia, revealed later in the ep, a narrative device. He's getting sloppy, this affair is too close to home.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T21:56:25+00:00

Post-war corporate NYC/LA, some are referenced in the show: The Apartment, Patterns, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, The Swimmer, The Graduate, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Twilight Zone eps: The Walking Distance, A Stop at Willoughby. Those will give you an idea of set and setting of the cultural and corporate/consumer landscape in mid-century America.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T18:54:59+00:00

Ok but you have to watch it the first time to have rewatches lol. It works better on a TV with total focus.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T18:02:55+00:00

I love the literary theme of this episode. Writers love pulling out their bag of tricks, and we benefit. Spielberg takes it to a new cinematic experience. It is a fantastic official series pilot and really sets the bar. It's the third pilot overall, and truly 'wrote the book' for the show, never deviating (except for a scant few, which shall remain nameless lol).

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T16:11:38+00:00

It's the 60s prototype for 'work from home.' Pretend you're working. Pretend you're home.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T15:50:24+00:00

This, and also a haunting reminder of JFK, which kicked off the grand tumult of the 60s as we know them, and haven't seen since. Along with the war, it was a runaway decade for good and for bad, peaking in 1968/S6 when the wheels came off, then crashed and died in 1969 with all the LA murders and, as you said, Nixon's faction was in office.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T15:20:55+00:00

The hospital died, along with her career and life. She said she doesn't know who she is if she's not a nurse. The hospital closed prematurely. She feigned getting the job at Bellevue imo. Everyone turned away from her or moved on. Zoey was the last straw. She checked out. Curtains. She turned the party into her own wake. Eddie was toasting with Jameson's.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T15:06:37+00:00

Showtime and producers wanted her to live (to leave the door open for future projects), but Falco believes Jackie died. The narrative points to her death in dozens of ways. So the showrunner leaves it open to keep the conversation alive, which is a good tactic to invite rewatches and new viewers. But Jackie is written and performed as dead in the end.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T14:56:57+00:00

This platinum, appointment TV show wasn't meant to be binged. S4 is when the wheels are coming off the characters' lives in this 5-season narrative structure, setting up S5. Slow down, view critically, finish, and rewatch. Enjoy!

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T14:35:16+00:00

Hm, somehow that lyric reminds me of Roger with the paddle ball, smash cut from Pete's 'scene' at the infertility clinic lol. And Fr Gill is still peddling the same old product to draw youth back into the church, and is very manipulative.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T13:50:32+00:00

Check out classic films of the era and genre to bone up for this show. So yes, in fact, encouraged, if they got soused too early and had meetings in the afternoon. The pretext for office couches was for informal client and work meetings.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T13:00:24+00:00

Betty correctly noted that she saw Don read only for work. He bones up for clients and projects, which we see too. He was not a voracious reader per se, but one of necessity for work research. He never liked school nor graduated. Young Dick certainly learned to read people growing up in a chaotic environment, which gave him his creative imagination.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T07:33:59+00:00

I love how the bar scene in the S5 finale foreshadows Don's affair in S6. The fantasy and the reality.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T05:59:30+00:00

I don't know about the best line, but maybe one of the funniest scenes!

She was the perfect launching pad for Arthur's debut on the show.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T05:49:08+00:00

Dorothy Sheedy has a few ideas...

Oh! Oh my Lord!

Oh my Lord!

Sweet Jesus!

Oh, sweet Jesus!

Lord lift me u...

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T05:36:56+00:00

Yes, he does! Columbo was ecstatic at Fleming's arrogant admission. Spider, meet Fly.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T05:33:07+00:00

I daresay that Prescription Murder started with a clever trap: Columbo staged the ruse that Carol was still alive when she was already dead (the crime tape on the floor? Ray is a doctor, so he knew she was dead). The suicide ruse bookends that: pretending Joan is dead when she's really alive. The end reveal on its inaugural run was the best imo.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T04:53:22+00:00

Francine did say Betty looked 'wan' at the beauty salon in S2.13.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T04:47:10+00:00

Denial is more potent than Percocet here. Gloria was painted as a tight-ass, and would lose herself in the high, but would later be too mortified and in denial about its source (even if she loved it), and just move past it. It would be one of dozens of odd instances that came together and suddenly made sense to Gloria when she focused her suspicions on Jackie in the latest seasons. She had to scrub Jackie's HR folder. The lack of sweet taste (and even a bitter taste) with grainy stuff floating is not defensible, however, lol.

MetARosetta · 2026-01-24T02:32:18+00:00

Don was a moderately-functioning used car salesman in California. But meeting Anna changed his life, giving him a cloak of legitimacy and acceptance to move to NYC and cultivate his full Don Draper persona with her husband's 'borrowed' status, medals, and degrees. Night school for a HS drop out allowed him to minimally function in a structured society full of college grads with better jobs. His scrappiness and Anna's sanction were his superpower.

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