more later

The other thing I wanted to talk about was last night's episode of Mad Men. If you haven't seen it and you want to, unspoiled, don't read this. You have now been appropriately warned. So there.

Okay. In last night's episode, there's a big Sally storyline. Development number one is that, while at Don's house (being watched by a babysitter while he's out on a date), she cuts her own hair in the bathroom with predictable success. When Don brings her home to Betty, Betty smacks her right across the face. Um, harsh. Parenting is not one of Betty's skills. Development number two is that, while at a sleepover, Sally is caught (sorta unconsciously) masturbating to a hot actor on TV by her (sleeping) friend's mother and all hell breaks loose. Development number three is that, as a result of developments one and two, psychiatric treatment is deemed necessary for the poor kid.

Well, the interwebs are awash today with certain conspiracy theorists postulating that Sally will disclose to the kindly psychiatrist lady that she was molested by Grampa Gene. Or possibly Henry. And this is why she is acting out. The basis for this supposition for some people is that a ten year old masturbating is, whoa, unusual and a sign of abuse. This is countered by other people pointing out that, whoa, no, kids practically come out of the womb masturbating and it's not weird at all. I guess this age at which any one of us discovered our own genitalia highly influences where we stand on this issue! Too funny.

Anyway, I will be very very disappointed if Mad Men does unveil a molestation storyline, maybe even more than I was disappointed that they went with the "ooo, Don feels guilty so now he's paying whores to smack him around" plot point. Both of these tropes--masochism=guilt, child acting out=having been touched inappropriately--are so played out, it's lazy writing. Do either of those things happen in real life? Well, yeah, sometimes they do. Have we not seen them in bad TV and movies over and over enough now that they've become easy cliched shortcuts? Well, yeah, we have. I do not expect lazy writing from Mad Men. I hope they don't disappoint me again.

And thus ends your TV critique for the day.

xoxo