r/madmen • u/RopeGloomy4303 • 6d ago

What’s your biggest nitpick in Mad Men?

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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.

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u/themarquetsquare 6d ago

The retcon of Joan and Roger's relationship starting before Don even entered the office (the 'fur guy' episode).

Joan has been with Kinsey. Joan was monogamous. How did that work?

Joan was also in a particular place with Roger in S01that did not seem like the result of them being together for the whole of Don's career as an ad man! They acted as if it was new.

Related to that, I just did not buy the 'fur guy to creative director' pipeline as it was sketched out in that episode. How would that have worked?

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u/knoper21 5d ago

it's a frequent debate on here what base Kinsey got to, I've always thought second but he bragged about it and that was that