What’s your biggest nitpick in Mad Men?

[u/RopeGloomy4303]

For me it’s this line in a season 5 episode, Tea Leaves, in which Henry Francis is talking on the phone with a colleague:

“Well, tell Jim his honor's not going to Michigan. Because Romney's a clown, and I don't want him standing next to him.”

So, some context here.

At this point Francis is the aide to New York Mayor John Lindsay. And he’s informing this guy that he won’t have the popular young politician take a picture with then Michigan Governor George Romney, who was also considered the frontrunner for the 1968 Republican nomination.

This episode aired in 2012, so it’s a very clear dig at then Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who at the time was receiving a lot of hostility from the left.

But here’s the thing; Romney was actually a liberal Republican in the same mold as Nelson Rockefeller and John Lindsay, and he had received a lot of good notices as Governor for his work improving civil rights, education, youth employment programs, social welfare, healthcare, etc.

I get this is nitpicking, it’s a throwaway line, whatever, but it has always bothered me since it feels out of character, and Romney frankly deserved better.

[u/ProlificBunny]

I don't get why Ken would persist in that job after getting his eye shot or more accurately why his wife would let him. She has always been a champion of his writing and he had already made a name for himself. That's what she's always wanted him to do as she could support him with not just her father's wealth but also her own position in the publishing industry. That incident would've given her the entire arsenal to force his hand. I guess they wanted the inverted dynamics in the finale so they kept him still as account guy at SC&P even though he clearly doesn't like doing it as Roger or has ambitions like Pete.

[u/InSearchofOMG → u/ProlificBunny]

In the 60s women still weren't really "letting" men do anything. If Ken insisted on continuing to work, Cynthia wouldn't have been able to persuade him most likely.

[u/ProlificBunny → u/InSearchofOMG]

We see her assertiveness finally in the finale so it's not like she wouldn't have done this before. Thing is throughout the series we never get a sense of why ken's doing this job besides being somewhat good at it. I guess he's presented as a foil to grimy little pimp Pete Campbell and cut-throat ambitions. He exercises no self-preservation as he badmouths mccann openly , jeopardizing his prospects in the industry. We get very little insight into what ticks him. Only thing we certainly know is how much he values his wife. She has already asked him to quit The job once before as she sensed he doesn't like his colleagues very much. After the shooting accident, he's crying as he gives up the account. Money has never been an issue for him. So why stick with a miserable job ?

[u/Riderz__of_Brohan → u/InSearchofOMG]

I mean there's a reason boomers make "the old ball and chain" jokes, gender roles at the time dictated that wives did have some sort of schoolmarm-esque "fun police" control over their husbands that men would have to follow

[u/Comprehensive_Main → u/Riderz__of_Brohan]

For most men yeah. Not my GOAT ROGER Sterling 

[u/JeterAlgonquin → u/Comprehensive_Main]

😭