Mad Men (TV Series) The Grown-Ups (2009) User Reviews

Great Coordination of Plot & History

[DKosty123 · 9/10 · 28 May 2011]

Against the back drop of the JFK murder this script has some great touches in coordinating Don Drapers life with the actual event. While the country is coming apart seemingly at the seams with all the events in Dallas, Draper's life seems to be falling apart at the same time.

His biggest problem is leaving the key to his home desk drawer in his robe. His wife finds it in the washer and then finds out about his secret life and what he did in the past. She finds out about his divorce, and his family and house in California. Betts loses all her faith in Don and after Don had spent too much time with his kids school teacher it all comes home to roost.

In the office, Don is having problems too. The entire cast is having climate control issues. Everything in the office is falling apart too. Add to this JFK and this episode pulls out a lot of stops getting old footage from the event and showing how it profoundly effects everyone.

What is interesting is how the script does not fall into the trap of everyone wondering where they were when he was shot. Instead, it has a lot of the cast so busy that they don't immediately realize what is going down. Betts, Don's wife seems totally obsessed with what is going on with JFK as the event becomes another crisis in faith with her to go with the loss of confidence in Don.

Wonderfully Different

[borowiecsminus · 8/10 · 21 August 2016]

We weren't sure if "Mad Men" would deal with the Kennedy assassination. But when, almost a season back, we saw the wedding invitation that was on that very day, we knew they would. We didn't know when. After all, time in "Mad Men" is strange.

Well, here it is. I was expecting it to happen in the middle of the wedding, but I'm glad it didn't. It's much better, if you ask me, the way they handled it; with a somewhat comic twist. It's interesting how the episode handling the most tragic event in the course of the show is so... funny. And it's good comedy, too. It's very dry. Roger never stops telling one-liners, as per usual in "Mad Men," and there's something darkly funny about how empty the wedding is and their attempts to pretend it's still packed. And of course, the funniest moment in a long time on the show was Roger's phone call with Joan about the wedding. "You should've seen it, Joanie. What. A. Disaster."

With that being said, there's also plenty of room for tragedy in the episode. There's Pete, not getting the job he wanted, and his sulking over it and plans to move on. There's Don and Betty's now increasingly on the rocks marriage, which, by the end, explodes into "I don't love you anymore," one of the most tragic sentences in the show's run. And of course, there's the JFK assassination itself, and everyone's devastating reactions to it. There's a moment, when Peter and Paul Kinsey are talking, with the television on. It's playing some random show, and the volume is low, and it cuts to a mandatory broadcast. They don't notice it, but if you listen closely, it is in fact, the news of the attack. And there's a sinking feeling in your gut that keeps wondering, "when will they look at the TV?"

It's truly one of "Mad Men"'s crowning achievements.

January Jones.

[gmoore44 · 9/10 · 29 July 2020]

The ending of season 3 is where Betty takes charge. From a confused housewife, she has emerged as a fully developed character, who is no longer able to turn a blind eye to her husband's wanderings, and discovers the truth. January Jones gives a tour de force performance as she breaks free of the era of 60's middle class conformity.

Back on track

[rwk2 · 29 August 2011]

What is really memorable from this season so far, now that we're facing down the finale? Betty and Don in Italy, her father bonding over ice cream with Sally, Don remembering oddly disjointed California memories of his past? Heck no. All of that was quite boring actually. Mad Men was on and I was finding odd jobs to do around the house. But then it got better! A guy lost his foot to a lawn mower! Betty confronted Don (finally)! And now JFK's assassination overshadowing--so very, very deservedly overshadowing--a spoiled little rich girl's wedding. THIS is the good stuff. I wonder if the writers felt they were losing people from the slow start of the first half of the season or if this was the concept all along: a bland and outdated first half with a roller coaster ride build-up? What was the purpose of Don taking an unscheduled three weeks to live the weird LA lifestyle? If it was just to set up his "ex" wife for viewers that was as wasted airtime as his underage sex romp with an Olympian fencer's daughter.

But we're back in NY with the company on the chopping block and emotions are running high all around. Let's hope they do something worthy of all this and continue with the much needed rescue of Season 3.

Bad bad acting by January Jones

[sexyshao · 8/10 · 7 January 2021]

Great episode, except January Jones' acting. Why is she in the series? She doesn't know how to act. Its as if she is just reading the lines from a teleprompter. She can't even act in intense and extreme scenes, leave alone the plain and subtle ones.

The JFK Death Episode

[TheFearmakers · 6/10 · 23 October 2019]

Betty once said she "hated John F. Kennedy," but in the inevitable episode where he gets assassinated, she practically becomes the widow: ironic since she's got a lot in common with Jackie being that their husbands would rather be with ANY OTHER woman, but...

Good episode, not great, bordering on just-okay, with too much covering of tragic history and very little story as far as, you know, this actual series is concerned...

What WAS handled well was Roger's story, trying to remain glib even though Joan, another JFK widow, says it's all no laughing matter...

Except that his spoiled daughter's wedding is on the exact same day of the assassination, and, as she's crying, the audience thinks it's for JFK but it's for her ruined wedding...

The kind of clever writing where an actual historic event flows evenly along with the episode... like when Kennedy was elected, for example... but it just doesn't happen this time: MAD MAN, like the fictional company it's about, takes a 50 break to mourn.